‘Going to Get This Anti-American Insanity out of Our Institutions’: Trump Talks About Education Reforms

Former President Donald Trump disembarks his plane "Trump Force One" at Aberdeen Airport in Aberdeen, Scotland, on May 1, 2023. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to seize endowments from colleges that follow discrimination through equity initiatives and reclaim America’s educational institutions from the hands of the “radical left” in a recent campaign video.

“I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. And schools that persist in explicit, unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment,” Trump said in the May 3 promotional video.

“A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly. Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers, and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all. We are going to have real education in America.”

Trump also highlighted the issue of high college fees. While tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding, academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth. “The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left. And we will do that,” he said.

He criticized the accreditors—who are supposed to make sure that schools are not ripping off students—for having “failed totally” at their jobs.

“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,“ Trump said. ”We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again, and once and for all.”

The standards Trump wants include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, removing “Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats,” and protecting free speech.

Trump also intends to eliminate “wasteful administrative positions” in education that end up driving up costs.

The former president proposed offering accelerated and low-cost degrees and implementing college entrance and exit exams to “prove that students are actually learning and getting their money’s worth.”

Anti-White, Anti-Asian Racism

Trump isn’t the only presidential candidate who is against racial discrimination through equity policies at colleges. Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been vocal against such initiatives in educational institutions.

In a November interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Ramaswamy called Affirmative Action the “single greatest form of institutionalized racism in the United States today.”

It is “anti-white, anti-Asian racism” that will then end up triggering a “backlash wave of new anti-Black racism that we otherwise would not have had but for the grievance that affirmative action creates amongst the people who were penalized by it.”

Ramaswamy pointed out that nobody talks about affirmative action when it comes to the NBA or NFL.

“If you were to apply this to the NBA or NFL, it would be the equivalent of asking someone who’s black to make a half-court shot, but someone who’s Asian gets a stair step right up to the hoop to go do a slam dunk,” he said.  “We shouldn’t think it’s anything different in science or engineering classrooms either. It’s an assault on merit. It’s an assault on excellence.”

Affirmative Action Lawsuit

Trump’s statement comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing whether colleges can keep using race as a determinant in college admissions via affirmative action. The court is considering two lawsuits brought forward by a group called Students for Fair Admissions.

While one case claims that the University of North Carolina discriminates against white and Asian-American applicants, another case alleges that Harvard’s admissions policy is discriminatory towards Asian-American applicants.

Both institutions have rejected these claims. While race is a determinative factor in a few applications, prohibiting race-based admissions would end up reducing the number of minority students on campus, the schools insist.

The court is scheduled to rule on the matter in June.