For an alternate viewpoint, see “ Point: Trump to Universities: Olive Branch Compact or Prosecution and Defunding.”

Among the many dangerous actions Donald Trump has taken, his push to force some of the country’s best universities into signing a sweeping federal “compact” ranks just behind his pardons for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

The 10-part compact is a bizarre mix of bombast, authoritarianism, and a few unremarkable ideas buried like pearls in a pile of dung.

The compact’s first sentence contradicts most of the 3,000-plus confused words that follow it: “American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our Nation.”

Combined with the subsequent laundry list of alleged faults, this is akin to a surgeon telling a patient: “You’re in perfe

See Full Page