The New Yorker Radio Hour How the Trump Administration Made Higher Education a Target
Oct 17, 2025
Emma Green, a Staff writer at The New Yorker, dives into the Trump administration's aggressive approach toward higher education. She highlights the shift from subtle changes to a muscular enforcement strategy targeting elite institutions. The discussion includes insights from Mae Mailman about the conservative stance on academic freedom and federal funding. Green also addresses public dissatisfaction with university value, the push for cultural change, and the ideological imbalances in academia. The podcast sheds light on how federal power is being leveraged to reshape educational policies.
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From Incremental To Muscular Federal Action
- The second Trump administration pursued a far more muscular, paradigm-shifting approach to higher education than the first one did.
- Officials now consider aggressive actions like freezing hundreds of millions in federal funds against Harvard plausible and effective.
The Coordinator Who Ran The Strike Force
- Mae Mailman coordinated a cross-agency 'strike-force' to align actions against targeted universities.
- She synchronized letters, press statements, and announcements so agency moves landed 'boom, boom, boom' in rapid succession.
Teach For America Shaped Mailman's View
- Mae Mailman described her Teach For America experience as shifting from practical teaching to a focus on racial inequity, which frustrated her practical instincts.
- That background helped shape her dislike of what she saw as schooling that promotes 'victimhood' rather than practical learning.