Trump's War on Harvard

In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch are joined by The Gist‘s Mike Pesca to discuss the Trump administration’s escalating campaign against Harvard. The conversation explores how government overreach in education threatens civil liberties and stable institutional governance. They also discuss corruption concerns they have over Donald Trump’s memecoin.

0:00—Introduction

2:53—Trump continues to attack Harvard

7:10—Trump is using the power of the state to punish his enemies

13:35—Are taxes on endowments a good idea?

17:23—Trump wants to give Harvard’s money to trade schools instead.

23:41—Trump’s memecoin dinner corruption

32:02—Listener question: If someone magically waved a wand and got rid of all federal discretionary spending, would it actually feel like government only got a 25 percent to 30 percent haircut?

37:49—The U.S. Mint has made its last order of pennies.

38:47—Should we eliminate the Institute for Peace?

40:08—Should we eliminate the Saturday service of USPS?

41:31—Should we get rid of everything that is free for congressmen at the U.S. Capitol?

43:34—Should we eliminate the Selective Service?

49:11—Weekly cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

• “Seizing Harvard’s Federal Funds,” by Liz Wolfe
• “Harvard’s Best Protection Is To Get Off the Federal Teat,” by Autumn Billings
• “Statement on Academic Freedom and Harvard by Right-of-Center Scholars, Lawyers, and Former Government Officials,” by Eugene Volokh
• “Steven Pinker: Can Harvard Be Saved?” by Nick Gillespie
• “To Cut Government Spending, Trump Targets Pocket Change,” by Rossana Pineyro
• “Dump the Draft Forever Instead of Making Women Register,” by J.D. Tuccille
• “In Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise Does What the U.S. Government Can’t,” by Peter Suderman

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• Video editor: Ian Keyser

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Source: https://reason.com/podcast/2025/05/27/trumps-war-on-harvard/