College leaders, their lobbyists, and their donors have been nursing for months a low-simmering anxiety about what a second Donald Trump term would mean for their institutions.
As much as state, local, and campus leaders want to believe they are autonomous from Washington’s reach, that’s merely a myth. While colleges and universities tend to be liberal enclaves positioned as safe spaces away from Trumpism and welcoming to edicts from Democratic administrations, that has long made them a favorite target of the MAGA movement even before it had a name.
