Trump’s Win Against Columbia

The Trump administration appears to be winning the fight against anti-Semitism on college campuses. Last week, the White House threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from Columbia University over its failure to address anti-Jewish hate. In response, the school has acceded to almost all of the administration’s demands—banning masked protests, boosting security on campus, and establishing oversight of its “post-colonial” academic departments, where anti-Israel activism has thrived.

Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Christopher F. Rufo writes that the Columbia episode should serve as a model for the administration moving forward. “One can consult almost any university diversity training materials and immediately understand that they are predicated on a domestic oppressor-oppressed narrative, which assigns whites the arch-oppressor role and legitimizes discrimination against them,” he writes. “The next phase of the White House’s campaign should be to target the entire nesting doll of discrimination and export the new Columbia prototype to all universities—starting with those in the Ivy League.”

Read his thoughtful take here.

Before NPR CEO Katherine Maher began her testimony before Congress on Wednesday, Rufo prepared some notes and questions for committee members to ask her. Maher is facing intense scrutiny from Republicans over her left-wing bias (as revealed in her social media history) and censoring of information during her time as CEO of Wikipedia. You can read Rufo’s suggestions here.

The University of California is ending its use of mandatory diversity statements in faculty hiring. It’s a significant decision, writes John D. Sailer, director of higher education policy at the Manhattan Institute, as the UC system played a leading role in developing the diversity-statement model, now used at higher education institutions across the country.

Some professors view the statements—essays describing faculty candidates’ commitment to DEI—as ideological litmus tests. And such statements “often facilitate racial discrimination,” Sailer notes. Read his take here.

Traffic in Palm Beach has gotten out of hand, thanks to the town’s popularity and President Trump’s residence there. Congestion pricing gets regularly discussed at town-council meetings as a possible solution, but it’s unlikely ever to happen, write Judith Miller, City Journal contributing editor, and Paul du Quenoy, president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. Read why here.

In Abundance, Ezra Klein of the New York Times and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic argue that progressives have become diehard defenders of regulatory bottlenecks. But they gloss over a few key historical points, argues AEI Senior Fellow James Pethokoukis. Read his review here.

“We need to recognize that government workers joining unions is a conflict of interest. Government is supposed to serve the taxpayers, and it has become overwhelmingly clear that more needs to be done to protect that relationship.”

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