Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. “We are all afraid,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said last month. “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
DHS targets Harvard: The Trump administration is revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, NYT’s Michael Schmidt and Michael Bender scooped, which would potentially force a quarter of the student body to either transfer to another school or risk losing their legal status. Jason Newton, a spokesperson for the university, said the action was unlawful. Harvard plans to sue.
The pretense: The decision stems from an investigation by DHS, which alleges that the university “created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students,” and comes after weeks of haggling between the agency and the university. “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”
Critics blasted the move: Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), a Harvard alum who has been critical of his own alma mater at times, said the administration “is acting just like the most unhinged of the anti-Israel campus protestors last year –– performative, irrational and cruel.”
FTC targets Media Matters: The Federal Trade Commission is demanding documents from liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America “about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X,” Reuters’ Jody Godoy and Mike Scarcella scooped.
The pretense: “FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to run the agency, highlighted the potential for a probe in December. ‘We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms,’ Ferguson said in a statement on an unrelated case.” (Notably, this comes as the FTC drops its case against the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard merger and a Pepsi price discrimination lawsuit, which is a good sign of its enforcement priorities.)
...
That’s not all, of course … The DOJ is investigating ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform. … The White House is punishing law firms that have represented Trump’s political opponents. … The U.S. attorney in New Jersey has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for allegedly assaulting law enforcement during a protest outside an ICE facility in Newark. … And Trump or his team have in recent days threatened investigations of New York AG Letitia James, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Bono, Oprah Winfrey, James Comey, “treasonous” aides to Joe Biden, the City of Chicago and the Kennedy Center, as the NYT’s Peter Baker noted.
