Donald Trump comes for America’s public universities

I N THE WANING weeks of summer, the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA ) is tranquil. A few students wander around wearing backpacks. Banners declaring UCLA the country’s “#1 public university” are inescapable (a claim that rankles the University of California, Berkeley, a state rival). A young woman lazes on the same lawn that—more than a year ago—was filled with tents housing students that were protesting against the war in Gaza . Now it is manicured and ready for the new academic year.