Donald Trump has never made a secret of his antipathy to higher education, but scapegoating the academy has become a central preoccupation of his second presidential run. His running mate, JD Vance, has openly declared that universities are the enemy and championed an aggressive attack on them. Agenda 47, Trump’s collection of policy proposals, includes a pledge to protect students from the “radical left and Marxist maniacs infecting educational institutions.”This contempt for higher education is a powerful rallying cry in their larger rightwing populist campaign.
If Trump takes the White House in November his administration could abolish the Department of Higher Education, as called for by Project 2025; levy fines on universities and use them to fund an online university called American Academy; replace college accreditors as part of their crusade against the “radical left;” roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; and implement a host of other disastrous measures.
While many academics have sounded the alarm about Trump’s plans to gut academia, Trump is not without supporters in higher education. I have studied 198 leading conservative professors and found that 109 support Trump: “academic Trumpists.” These are professors who advocated and voted for Trump in 2016, supported his administration despite all its turmoil, and challenged the legitimacy of Biden's win in 2020. A few even supported the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol. They are overwhelmingly white, male and tenured. Some, like Marshall DeRosa, Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University, express their support in blunt terms. In 2016 he said, “I’m looking forward to voting for Trump, because I see him as a wrecking ball and I want to see those sons of bitches squeal in Washington, to be quite frank.” Trump now gives every indication that he will take his wrecking ball to higher education and, if he does, he’ll find some professors there to welcome him.
-David L. Schwartz in Salon.com
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