Yasin Gungor
13 October 2025•Update: 13 October 2025
ISTANBUL
US President Donald Trump vowed Sunday to eliminate what he called "woke, socialist, and anti-American ideology" from American universities, threatening enforcement action while offering deals to institutions that comply with his demands.
"Throughout most of our history, America's colleges and universities have been a great strategic asset of the United States. Tragically, however, much of higher education has lost its way," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
He accused universities of "corrupting our youth and society" with ideology that justifies "discriminatory practices by universities that are unconstitutional and unlawful."
"To those universities that continue to illegally discriminate based on race or sex, we will continue our current efforts to swiftly and forcefully enforce federal law," Trump warned.
He invited institutions to enter "forward looking agreements" with the federal government to achieve a "golden age of academic excellence."
Universities agreeing to the compact would "stop racist admission policies, and put an end to unjust and illegal discrimination in faculty hiring," Trump said.
They must also commit to what he called "high quality standards, an intellectually open campus environment," institutional neutrality, student affordability, and ending "entanglement of foreign money."
Earlier this month, the Trump administration sent a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" to nine prominent universities, encouraging alignment with his agenda for better access to federal funding.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Friday became the first of the nine to reject the compact, saying in a letter that the document “includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution.”
“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, wrote to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Since Trump took office in January, the Education Department has launched investigations into several universities alleging civil rights violations through racial preferences in admissions or programming.
A number of universities have fought back, saying Trump’s moves amount to an authoritarian assault on academic freedom.
