Is Trump’s attempted shakedown of universities about restoring legislative supremacy? Views differ

It is encouraging that so far universities have not capitulated to Capo McMahon’s protection racket:

The battle for academic freedom and institutional sovereignty in higher education continues to play out as another university has rejected a White House offer for expanded access to federal funding in return for agreeing to a series of demands.

The University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday declined an offer by the Trump administration to join a compact that would potentially give preferential funding in exchange for a list of changes to school policy, including no longer considering sex and ethnicity in admissions and capping international enrollment. The letter was sent to nine universities at the beginning of the month, and a total of four schools have rejected the offer so far.

Virginia is out too.

It’s easy to see what the shot is here — the administration is hoping to get a few universities to agree to some short-sighted short-term advantages, use this to convince others to go along, and then use the agreements to make Chris Rufo the de facto head of as many schools as possible. But some people are paid not to see the obvious:

Danielle Allen fails the Lando test / lives out the Arrested Development meme: "A deal on the core principles in a compact could then become a framework for negotiating on legislation." Come ON. With this administration and this Congress? therenovator.substack.com/p/why-im-exc…

[image or embed]— Brendan Nyhan (@brendannyhan.bsky.social) Oct 6, 2025 at 11:47 AM

The unseriousness of Allen’s argument is manifest, but I think this is my “favorite” part:

Last Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to nine leading universities proposing a new “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” between America and its universities. On Thursday, the letter leaked through the Washington Examiner. On Friday higher ed erupted.

The criticism was scathing — the compact is extortion, federal overreach, and proposes violations of the First Amendment, both rights of association and rights of expression.

I think my colleagues have rushed to judgment and are missing an extraordinary opportunity to do the right thing — in fact, two right things. The compact introduces a chance to establish a much-needed fresh relationship between America and higher education. It also offers an opportunity to pivot away from executive branch overreach and restore legislative supremacy.

Pivot away from executive branch overreach and restore legislative supremacy? It’s absurd on its face to think that this is a viable outcome. Executive branch control is the entire purpose of these proposed compacts! Anything positive you achieve in a negotiation will be cancelled or ignored! And it’s even more ridiculous in the context of an ongoing conspiracy between the executive and judicial branches to render Article I a nullity.

This is an admittedly extreme example, but this combination of sanewashing and wishcasting on the part of American elites — the belief that Trump’s arbitrary power moves can somehow be used to achieve your pet objective — is one crucial reason why we got here, and some people never learn anything, willfully or not.