US higher education is staring at an uncertain future under Trump

Rashid Khalidi, America’s foremost scholar on Palestine, best described the sorry state of higher education in the United States today in a recent interview. “For some time now, I have been both disgusted and horrified by the way higher education has developed into a cash register – essentially a money-making, MBA, lawyer-run, hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education, where money has determined everything, where respect for pedagogy is at a minimum”. Trump’s incoming Education Secretary, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and passionate anti-DEI advocate Linda McMahon, will undoubtedly work hard to turn Trump’s grim vision for American higher education into reality. In August, responding to JD Vance’s promise to “aggressively attack universities in this country” if elected into office, American Association of University Professors President Todd Wilson said, “We are in a crucial moment that will decide the future of higher education for decades to come. That certain leaders and institutions of American higher education appear to be bowing to Trump even before he officially moves back into the White House should not surprise anyone.