Commentary: Against hope, Trump is still expanding his anti-HE toolbox

America’s higher education community has found solace in a good track record thus far in battling Trump and his administration in the courts. And with no major universities signing onto the administration’s proposed ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’, which demands an array of concessions in return for favoured status in federal funding, there appears a growing resistance to unprecedented federal attempts to undermine the autonomy of American colleges and universities.

Fresh from a successful lobbying effort in Congress that avoided Trump’s plans to drastically cut science funding for fiscal year 2026, there is a sense of optimism voiced by some higher education leaders and in the media that perhaps the worst is over.

Hope springs eternal for greater room to navigate Trump’s current and future attacks on colleges and universities. Yet there are worrisome indicators that Trump’s agenda for higher education and science will not ebb.