Opinion | How Trump’s assault on US universities is reshaping rivalry with China

In purging individuals and ideas from US universities, Donald Trump’s new ‘red scare’ will only diminish America’s ability to attract top tech talent

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Published: 7:30pm, 27 Mar 2025

US President Donald Trump’s assault on American universities is pushing the country’s intellectual landscape further towards the right in an upheaval that is altering the dynamics of the US-China great power rivalry.

After facing the threat of a US$400 million reduction in federal funding, Columbia University has yielded to Trump’s demands to curb antisemitism and reform its Middle East studies department, among other changes. Liberal critics have decried Columbia’s compliance as an erosion of academic freedom.

To be sure, conservatives have for a long time criticised US liberal elite universities for stifling intellectual freedom, claiming that conservative viewpoints are often ostracised. The Trump administration is working to reset this imbalance by introducing courses focused on “American traditions” and “Western civilisation” within university curriculums.

But Trump is not stopping there: his administration is seeking to eradicate “woke” courses such as gender studies and critical race theory. Herein lies the irony of the current upheaval in US higher education. Framed as a battle to defend academic freedom, both liberals and conservatives seem to be engaging in the very act they accuse each other of – censoring opposing viewpoints.

The American struggle to protect freedom of speech is, in essence, a cultural war between conflicting world views. Whoever prevails in the political arena gains the power to define the boundaries of that freedom. Trump, having won the political battle, is now determined to redefine the very concept of academic freedom. The goal, Trump declared, is to reclaim “our once-great educational institutions from the radical left”.

This battle has gone global, with US Vice-President J.D. Vance accusing European countries of infringing on free speech by supposedly silencing right-wing voices and movements.