On July 10th, 2020, Donald Trump, in his distinct Trumpian fashion, tweeted, "Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!"

Attacks against liberalism on college campuses is nothing new. Conservatives have long since complained against the liberal bias found in the college education system (though one would think that they would stop and wonder why educated institutions hold liberal beliefs). Whether or not one agrees with the system or not, it is completely acceptable to argue against it and have open debates on the efficacy or legitimacy of these institutions - it is the citizens' First Amendment right. What Trump is doing is completely different. Trump is punishing institutions - private institutions that have a right to their own mission and values - simply because they disagree with him.

Normally, we could brush this off as one of Trump's frenetic Twitter tirades. But as his polls dip further and further, even among Republicans, it is clear he is not above taking drastic measures to punish those against them, especially after ICE declared that individuals on student visas have to either transfer to a college holding in-person classes or get out of the country and Trump threatened to sue public schools that did not open in the fall. Trump's attack of the American education system is a clear violation of free speech, however, that is not the worst part of this whole thing. The scariest part is that Trump is willing to put lives at risk - the lives of both immigrants and children - to punish those who would speak against him.

Colleges are already fighting back against ICE's mandate, with Harvard, MIT, Rutgers, and other colleges suing ICE. In the fall, I would not be surprised if public school educators went on strike to protest the impossibility of opening school in the fall, especially with dwindling federal and state funds. However, the issue is, what will Trump do in response to these protests? This only seems like the worst he can do only because we don't want to imagine anything else, but I would not put it past him to defund higher education altogether in the name of maintaining his own status quo.