They say that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Which may explain why Donald Trump and his acolytes seem scared of strongly independent universities. It doesn’t do to have organisations teaching people factual knowledge when your government is driven by lies, arrogant boasts and bullying intimidation of anyone who doesn’t automatically agree with the latest propaganda.
Those are strong allegations, so it is worth stating clearly what exactly is being done to any concept of free exchange of ideas within American universities and to stare in the face the exact nature of what institutions like Harvard are being asked to do.
Harvard vs Trump
The US government has demanded that Harvard must provide it with all disciplinary records for non-immigrant students enrolled there over the past five years and turn over electronic records, videos or audio of any activity on campus that the government doesn’t like.
The university would have to hand over any records of demonstrations on campus or student discussion groups to government organisations which are no longer subject to any meaningful controls over what they do with the information. Should the government agency decide to use the information to identify, jail and expel any student who spoke out against what is happening in Gaza, then it would be virtually impossible to protect that individual.
Effectively the university is being asked to spy on its students and deny them the opportunity to explore ideas freely on campus. Or rather it isn’t being asked; it is being told. Already it has lost $2.7bn in grants for non-compliance. Now the US government is trying to stop it recruiting any students from abroad until it agrees to police and inform on them the way that the Trump administration wishes them to be policed. That would remove approximately 7,000 students from the university each of whom brings in at least $86,926 in a single year. That’s another $608mn down the drain if the university sticks to its principles.
Standing up for academic freedom
It will be interesting to see who blinks first in this battle. Harvard has the advantage of a very healthy bank balance and the incentive that its long-term reputation will be massively enhanced if it proves able to hold firm to its standards and principles in very dangerous times. It also has the important advantage that all those foreign students bring in large amounts of foreign currency which just happens to be very useful to anyone whose reputation depends on making America economically successful.
It has the disadvantage of dealing with an ideologically driven president with a hefty chip on his shoulder who absolutely hates the idea of knowledge being freely exchanged that might run counter to his latest daft theory. Across the States scientists are being sacked as research programmes are being cancelled en masse.
Authoritarian regime
If this intimidatory approach to government was one isolated example, then things might not be so very worrying. In truth it is intrinsic to everything that the Trump administration is trying to do. Slipped into the one big beautiful bill – that cut taxes and re-directs expenditure in favour of the very rich – were a whole series of very unpleasant measures on the undercard.
Here are some of the things that the US president can now do. He can ignore Supreme Court rulings for a year. He can fire government employees that he believes to be disloyal. He can prevent judges from ordering the implementation of their decisions. Oh, and he can delay or cancel an election. Those are powers which belong in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, not in a functioning democracy.
If anyone chooses to speak out against this attack on the fundamental freedoms handed down by the US founding citizens, then they have very few outlets. Most TV channels, physical newspapers and online social media sites are now under the control of one or other of the oligarchs who so enthusiastically promoted Trump’s presidency.
Those with independent voices are being forced onto more marginal sites such as the excellent Bluesky, because algorithms are suppressing their views so effectively on what is left of Twitter. The few bleats of protest in the mainstream media are ironically coming from the Rupert Murdoch-owned press, as he has finally started to show some signs of understanding that he has released a very dangerous genie from the bottle.
Freedom of expression in America
Freedom of expression shouldn’t have to rely on the hope that the oligarchs will fall out with each other and allow some small expression of displeasure over the march of authoritarianism in the States. It should be a right that we all insist on exercising. That is why so very much depends on whether Harvard stands firm and refuses to back down.
If it does, then there may be some safe spaces in the United States where facts that the government doesn’t like can be uncovered by scientific research and analysed by experts from across the planet. It might prove possible to continue publicising the real evidence about uncomfortable truths like the extent to which fossil fuel producers are putting our future at risk by drill baby drill extremism. There might even be an opportunity for clear headed economists to report the history of what has happened in the past whenever a government has tried to dash for growth by unfunded tax cuts.
Learn from the Liz Truss experience
If that proud tradition of academic freedom is secured, then there is one case study I suggest those economists study with especial care. There is already excellent evidence of what happens when a reckless government leader tries to put silly far right economic theories into practice without thinking carefully enough about the consequences. All they need to study is the short history of the Liz Truss government in Britain.
It may take longer for the US economy to crash with equally spectacular effect, because it is bigger more diversified and has the advantage of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But you can’t keep on damaging the domestic economy without consequences and that’s exactly what happens when inflation rises because of hikes in prices of imports, unemployment rises because of restrictions on supplies to US factories, and foreign currency earnings fall because of the removal of key sources of it such as overseas students.
Sooner or later those chickens are going to come home to roost as people who voted for Trump find evidence of the America economy getting weaker not stronger hits them in the pocket.
Truth vs propaganda
In the UK there were checks and balances still in existence that allowed the Conservative Party to ditch the perpetrator of the economic disaster. In the States all the focus has been on removing those limits and controls so it will be much harder to get rid of the source of the problem. There are, however, limits on what those who weren’t completely mindless true believers in the Trump project are prepared to tolerate if the real economy takes a downward turn.
No amount of manipulation and bullying will save him if he fails to deliver the much-promised great revival and the economy goes down instead of up. You can suppress the truth for a long time but when the evidence of people’s own eyes contradicts the propaganda put out by an authoritarian government no amount of bullying, manipulation and intimidation can keep that government in power.
When that happens those that stood firm in their defence of democracy will emerge with a renewed faith in the importance of free thinking. Those who capitulated to the attempts to turn the United States into an imitation of the USSR will be less proud of their achievements. And those who invited President Trump to take tea with the King of Canada will be covered in shame.
