Trump to Campus Agitators: Get Out

In which Donald Trump channels Ronald Reagan, circa 1969. Remember this? (You might actually remember it if you’re 75 or so …)

At the time, it proved Reagan’s mettle as a leader and easily won him a second term from an electorate (in California!) that had grown fed up with on-campus chaos and riots. The moment was so significant in Reagan’s political career that it became a featured moment in the recent biopic Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid. Reagan made clear to both protesters and the Academia progressives coddling them that he wouldn’t put up with either group.

I may not be quite old enough to remember that moment directly and to have the full experience of history repeating itself, but I’m close enough to hear the echo:

All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Can he do that? Trump can certainly make them fight over it and hold funding in the meantime. Courts may be hard pressed to issue orders that forces the federal government to send education grants to universities at all, let alone while illegal protests and riots make the situation unsafe for other students. 

This order doesn’t apply to legal demonstrations, but of course that’s a tricky point to navigate. Many of these universities are private, meaning they can set the terms of campus behavior to a point. Columbia, for instance, could just approve demonstrations that seize property in order to evade the “illegal” protest qualifier, and both police and the Department of Education would be hard pressed to do much to intervene. 

However, that probably wouldn’t be a great solution either. First, that policy would encourage riots and occupation of spaces to the point where nothing much else could get accomplished, and even for Columbia that would eventually become a problem. Second, Trump would just find other pretexts for cutting off funds, and those exist in abundance. The nature of the anti-Semitic protests makes an easy case to suspend funding under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which allows the cessation of federal funding to any entities not in compliance. In fact, critics of Joe Biden’s response to these campus rights brought that up repeatedly — as did we.

As for deportation of foreign students, you’d better believe Trump can try it. Each case would have a hearing, but foreign students remain in the US under a visa that can be revoked on the basis of criminal activity. It’s less clear that Trump can directly get American students expelled, but he can make life miserable for schools dependent on federal funding for student loans, research grants, and other tuition support programs. If they don’t expel the troublemakers, they will have to spend a lot of time and effort to get their money back, and that’s no sure thing these days. 

Expect a big hue and cry from Academia and their allies if and when Trump puts this policy into action. But they should not expect much sympathy from a public sick to death of spoiled brats channeling the Klan on Ivy League campuses.