Make no mistake, while the media and Democrats hyper-focus on President Trump's "assault" on Harvard University's funding, students, and programs, it is about far more than Harvard. And it is meant to be.

As the reputationally preeminent institution of higher education in America, and arguably now one of the most radical and anti-American, Harvard is the perfect example to make in the battle to root out the rot in American universities. 

If this university can be publicly corrected, the rest of the American university universe will be much more compliant. It's the concept of taking on the biggest guy in the schoolyard. Beat him, and no one else will be a problem. This fight will not need to be had hundreds of times if common sense Americanism can defeat Harvard. As the New York Times wrote: "More than 2,600 four-year colleges are watching closely."

You bet they are. Trump is relentless with Harvard for this very reason, going after every facet of Harvard, step by step by step, while virtually ignoring the rest of universities beyond the broadest strokes.

The administration's latest corrective actions against Harvard come as the General Services Administration sent the university a letter explaining how the federal government is severing $100 million of federal contracts with the university, the final flow of tax money from the federal government to the university.

This is the latest front in the administration's attempts to right Harvard's dangerously errant ship — or at least stop funding it with billions of taxpayer dollars. The sins of Harvard and so many universities are legion. But what has been cited in the defunding efforts is vehement anti-conservatism, antisemitism, racist hiring policies, racist student acceptance policies, sheltering dangerous foreign students because they pay full freight, and violations of students' civil rights.

Money talks at Harvard, like most universities. Harvard is as much a $53 billion private equity and hedge fund operation as it is a university.

President Trump is also seeking to bar radical foreign students from Harvard, as they have been a central force in fomenting antisemitism, unrest, and violence, while Harvard is actively protecting them. The U.S. State Department has paused all new interviews for student visa applicants for Harvard. 

Axios News reported that Trump officials reviewed what the shadowy Biden cabal did over the past few years in terms of vetting foreign students' criminal backgrounds. They discovered (surely to no one's real surprise) that the answer was Zippo. Out of more than 100,000 foreign students who received visas to attend American universities, exactly zero were blocked or revoked for either arrest or school suspension. Zero out of 100,000. So, the shadows running the previous four years of chaos did no real vetting through the Student Exchange Visitor System, mirroring their southern border policy: Just let everyone in and Cloward and Piven the system.

In addition to conducting basic vetting for criminal or suspension-worthy activity, the Trump administration is significantly expanding social media vetting, including the use of AI to scan social media for violations that would make them poor additions to American universities.

In response to this additional level of vetting, NBC reported that some international students are considering attending universities in other countries. Well, perfect. NBC naturally thinks this is a negative consequence. Still, if these students do not want to be vetted for anti-American radicalism and shift to a different country, then we already have a win. That is the best outcome because we don't need to spend resources on them. Foreign students who want to be here for the right reasons will not have a problem with the vetting process.

As with many issues, the American people are with Trump. About two-thirds of Americans support the deportation of non-citizen students who support recognized terrorist groups, according to, ironically enough, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.

Even Democrat Alan Dershowitz, not known to be a big fan of Trump, supports him on this. "Something has to be done," Dershowitz said. "I'm glad that there are at least some efforts to try to stop Harvard and other schools from fomenting this kind of antisemitism."

Beat Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and the rest of the Ivy League, along with Stanford, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the rest, will be much more likely to fall in line.

This issue is a win for Trump, a victory for Republicans, and most importantly, a win for America.

Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America on their behalf. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].