Every day, it looks more like a regime.
Now the Trump administration is pushing to put Columbia University under a consent decree—a court-enforced agreement that would legally bind the school to federal demands, with a judge overseeing whether they “comply.” This isn’t about protecting students. It’s about sending a message: step out of line, lose your funding.
Columbia has already agreed to some of their conditions—banning protest masks, increasing security, cracking down on student expression. But that’s not enough. They want control. They want precedent. And they want to use federal dollars to make universities fall in line.
This isn’t normal oversight. This is federal coercion dressed up as civil rights enforcement. If the government can strip a university of funding for how it handles protests—based on political pressure—what happens to free speech? Academic independence? Dissent?
This is how regimes operate. Intimidate, monitor, punish. Repeat.
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