Our series on democracy, where we hear a range of perspectives on how government should function,

what's led to this moment in American history, and where the country might be headed next.

Tonight, we're looking at the president's push for more control at dozens of colleges and universities

in order, he says, to promote free speech, end wokeism and clamp down on burgeoning anti-Semitism.

But many schools are opposing the administration and argue that Trump is trying to dictate

what's acceptable speech and what colleges can do.

We're joined by a leading conservative activist who's been instrumental in triggering the

wider response and big changes from the administration.

Christopher Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Chris, welcome to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

So a lot of the action we've seen from President Trump in his second term so far

builds on a lot of the ideas we've heard from a number of conservative activists,

but you in particular, and I know you've

called for a number of reforms, but you've also said the first field of battle is higher education.

So explain to us why that is, and also why the focus on elite universities as well.

Well, you want to focus on elite universities because elite universities establish the cultural

signals that then flowed downward to the university sector as a whole.

And what we know from the Ivy League universities, including Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia,

is that they are directly, flagrantly, and intentionally violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

They're promoting from their central administrations, racial discrimination, scapegoating, and even segregation.

So the changes we know the Trump administration has been trying to push through are really being enforced by threatening to cut federal funds, right? That is sort of the

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