Universities quietly negotiating with White House aide to try to avoid Harvard's fate, source says
Source: CNN Politics
Published 6:00 AM EDT, Sat May 31, 2025
CNN College and university leaders have been privately negotiating with a deputy to top Trump aide Stephen Miller in hopes of avoiding the same aggressive targeting of Harvard University, a person familiar with the matter said, as the administration looks to escalate its attacks on the Ivy League institution and other schools.
The higher education leaders, who have had granular conversations with senior White House policy strategist May Mailman in recent weeks, are asking what signals they need to send to stay out of the administrations crosshairs, the person said. Mailman works closely with Miller an architect of the administrations strategy to target colleges over concerns they are not sufficiently policing alleged antisemitism on their campuses.
In turn, a White House official said the administration is relaying to the leaders that the money simply cannot and will not flow unabated as it has been and that the universities are incubators of discrimination and the taxpayer cannot support that. These conversations come as the administration is investigating dozens of other schools, and as some school leadership comes to Washington. The White House is looking to strike a deal with a high-profile school, said the first source, who is involved in the higher education response.
They want a name-brand university to make a deal like the law firms made a deal that covers not just antisemitism and protests, but DEI and intellectual diversity, this person said. They want Trump to be able to stand up and say he made a deal with so-and-so an Ivy League school, some sort of name-brand school that gives them cover so they can say, We dont want to destroy higher education. Asked if any of the schools are inclined to make such a deal, the source said, Nobody wants to be the first, but the financial pressures are getting real.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/31/politics/universities-negotiate-trump-administration-harvard
"Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class".

groundloop
(12,975 posts)Why don't universities across the country file a class action suit against tRump?
JohnSJ
(98,816 posts)the same thing if this was the thirties in Germany.
Quite disheartening.
F**KING FOOLS. If they all stood together, that is how you fight this.
marble falls
(65,748 posts)bucolic_frolic
(50,620 posts)On the ground, it's a local protection racket run from the White House.
Brainfodder
(7,341 posts)WTAF is this working?
I have to laugh, caz it is going to sound NUTSO DELUXE to people if the species lasts another 100 years.
What's the USA nation record for lasting with Dementia?
What's the USA national average life span for white 79 year old males?
https://bmjgroup.com/study-sheds-more-light-on-life-expectancy-after-a-dementia-diagnosis/
tanyev
(46,568 posts)
chowder66
(10,596 posts)Call a University, tell them others are negotiating when none are.
elleng
(139,616 posts)Forget about such foolishness.
jrthin
(5,132 posts)sticking together? Ugh.
Paladin
(30,608 posts)I thought higher education execs were supposed to be intelligent---and yet here they are, wimping out and thus guaranteeing nothing but further storm-trooper punishment from this corrupt, fascistic regime. It's as if nobody learned a fucking thing from trump's attempted ransacking of the big law firms---once the law firms were shamed into fighting back, trump and his enforcers relented. What I want is a complete listing of all the colleges that have gone full-scale chickenshit for trump---I'll do everything I can to make sure none of my money or family ever go to such spineless, groveling institutions. I suggest that others consider doing the same.
ananda
(31,893 posts)Such a shame.
dlk
(12,646 posts)Its what mobbed-up criminals do.
Iamscrewed
(341 posts)Rolling over for the fascist nazis
fujiyamasan
(221 posts)And war chest to drag this out to court. International students are a huge cash cows for universities. Much of the research funding in STEM programs would dry up if student visas are cut off.
usonian
(17,990 posts)