I haven't written about Trump's fascist attempts to exert control over Harvard University primarily because after making a great fanfare of announcing they intended to fight back against the regime's ideological policing, they quietly walked back their resistance posture, repurposed their diversity, equity, and inclusion office, and shockingly agreed to share information on foreign students with DHS. For all intents and purposes, Harvard's actions represented a complete capitulation to the fascist regime's agenda, with some posturing thrown in that allowed Harvard to save face in a way for example, Columbia had not. As we've noted many times in this thread however, appeasing fascists doesn't work and once you agree to obey Trump's authoritarian edicts, you're essentially property of the regime going forward.
Harvard is now learning this lesson the hard way because despite all their cowardly bootlicking, Trump is still openly announcing the regime's intention to revoke Harvard's tax except status; something he has literally no legal authority to do according to most experts.
Trump Seeks to Revoke Harvard’s Tax Status Despite Numerous Concessions
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
In response, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and three other Democratic senators have demanded that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) internal watchdog investigate whether the Trump administration is unlawfully pressuring the agency to target Harvard.
Just weeks ago, Harvard was celebrated for resisting the Trump administration’s threats to withhold $2.2 billion in federal funding, positioning itself as a defender of academic freedom by filing a lawsuit challenging the funding freeze. But recently, the university has quietly reversed course, rebranding and altering the mission of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office, announcing that it will no longer fund affinity group celebrations during commencement, and sharing international student information with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“You mean to tell me banning affinity group graduations, handing over school records to the DHS gestapo, cracking down on protests, and dismantling DEI didn’t appease this fascist dictator?! I’m shocked I tell you,” Harvard Law School instructor Alejandra Caraballo said on Bluesky."
I think the facts of this story speak for themselves; Trump's war on higher education to enforce a white nationalist ideological framework on American life is clearly fascist, Harvard put on a brave face but ultimately chose craven collaboration with the regime's fascist agenda, and surprise, surprise, Trump has continued to threaten the University and demand further concessions. Trump is a fascist bully hellbent on controlling every aspect of our society and you don't ever stop a bully by appeasing them.
There is however a deeper layer of fascist fuckery going on here, because Trump's war on higher education also aligns perfectly with noted fascist theorist Curtis Yarvin's proposed "Butterfly Revolution" to transform America into a fascist dictatorship under Trump; part of which revolves around destroying or taking control of "the Cathedral" which Yavrin defines as the mainstream media, prestigious American universities, and important cultural institutions. I doubt Trump has ever read The Butterfly Revolution, but his Vice President, JD Vance, certainly has. He's a devote follower of Yarvin's expressly "neo-fascist" teachings, as are key billionaire TechBro Trump donors and supporters like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen. Now whether or not Trump understands that all of this is part of a plan by his nazi billionaire buddies to shatter the American nation state and create techno-feudalist "Patchwork" or "Network State" city-state dictatorships out of the smoldering ashes is more debatable; but either way, all of these guys are clearly working on the installation of a fascist political, social, and ideological framework on our society that will last decades beyond Trump's own miserable existence.
