Why Trump Wants to Control Universities

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If the Trump administration’s actions and rhetoric against universities sound vaguely familiar, that may be because they’ve already happened elsewhere. Over the years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has dismantled his country’s higher-education system; cracked down on diversity, dissent, and critical thinking; and cast academic institutions as dangerous. So what does that mean for the future of higher ed in America? Further reading: Ian Bogost on “The End of College Life” Anne Applebaum on “America’s Future Is Hungary” Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	universities are all of a sudden breaking news.
0:08.7	Last week, a video went around showing a man in a navy hoodie approaching a woman in a long white downcoat.
0:15.2	It was still pretty cold when the video was shot outside Boston, right near Tufts University. The woman backs away,
0:22.3	the guy grabs her hands,
0:23.8	and then a few more people approach her from behind.
0:26.7	The woman's name is Ramesa Ozturk,
0:29.6	and she's a graduate student at Tufts University.
0:32.2	The people approaching her are federal agents.
0:35.1	They arrested her after the State Department
0:37.1	revoked her student visa.
0:43.0	Just before that,
0:44.8	ICE arrested Palestinian activist
0:46.6	and Columbia student
0:47.6	Mahmoud Khalil.
0:48.9	He'd been a leader of student protests.
0:51.1	The administration said
0:52.4	that amounted to supporting Hamas.
0:55.0	They claimed his student visa was revoked.
0:57.0	Other students targeted for deportation, a fellow at Georgetown, also arrested.
1:03.0	A grad student from India who was teaching at Georgetown University on a student visa.
1:07.0	Colombia was threatened with losing $400 million, and then they agreed to some demands.
1:13.6	Harvard is now also under review for roughly $9 billion.
	...

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