The Dictatorship
Trump wants Linda McMahon to lead the command of his war on universities
When Donald Trump announced his choice of former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, his statement shouted that with her at the helm, “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES.” The sentence was a reference to Trump’s previous pledge to shut down the department entirely — a promise Republicans have been making since it was created in 1979.
But axing the entire department was always unlikely — not just because it would require congressional action, but because what Trump actually wants is more federal control over education, not less.
The real focus in the new Trump administration will be higher education.
Like everything else in Trump’s vision for government, he wants the department McMahon would lead to be more corrupt, more ideologically right wing and less capable of doing the job it is supposed to do. In the past, McMahon has promoted private school vouchers that drain money from public schools, and she will surely do so again. But the real focus in the new Trump administration will be higher education. The war on universities is about to begin.
This war has both practical and political purposes for the GOP. For decades, demonizing higher education has been a favorite tactic for Republicans. They believe universities stand in fundamental opposition to the right’s project, and in many ways they’re correct: Most professors are liberal, and critical inquiry often undermines conservative ideas and values.
During the campaign, Trump released a video laying out his plan to “reclaim our once-great educational institutions from the radical left.” He promised to use the “secret weapon” of accreditation, punishing schools that don’t follow his instructions by stripping them of the certification without which they might not survive. “I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” he said, and replace them with Trump-approved accreditors who will bring a more MAGA-friendly approach to higher education.
Trump also said he would have the Justice Department target “schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination,” by which he clearly meant efforts to promote diversity; his allies are planning to invert the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division so it focuses on alleged anti-white racism. If universities do not meet Trump’s standard, they “will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
Seizing the endowments of universities would almost certainly be illegal, but Trump is spoiling for a fight, and his “secret weapon” is a powerful threat. Accreditation is vital to every university; without it, their students can’t get federal loans and they can’t receive federal research funding (more than half of university research funds come from the federal government).
This assault is already going on at the state level, where Republicans have passed laws outlawing diversity programs, weakening tenure protections and gagging professors from discussing certain ideas. No politician has waged war on his state’s higher education system with more venom than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A 2023 report from the American Association of University Professors called DeSantis’ efforts “a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history, which, if sustained, threatens the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state.”
In Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump has an enthusiastic partner for this fight.
Trump is essentially promising to mount the same kind of attack from Washington. And there’s more. Project 2025 proposed to “deny loan access to students at schools that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens.” (Trump, of course, disavowed Project 2025, but since the election, those around him have embraced it.) That would mean any student attending a state school in one of the 25 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition would have their loans cut off.
In Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump has an enthusiastic partner for this fight. Earlier this year, as a senator, Vance sponsored legislation to take federal funding from universities that allowed undocumented students, including DACA recipients legally allowed to work, to have campus jobs. Vance has expressed admiration for the way Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, seized control of Hungarian universities as part of his effort to silence his critics. Vance argued that because universities are not properly educating students, “there needs to be a political solution to that problem.”
While Trump and Vance are no doubt sincere in their disgust with diversity and other liberal ideas, their war on universities is driven by politics. We are now in an age of education polarization; in 2020Joe Biden beat Trump among voters with college degrees by 24 points, and when the data comes in from 2024, the results will probably be similar. The same trend is visible in many Western democracies, as voters with more education increasingly support left-wing parties.
It isn’t just that Republicans are less interested in getting the support of voters with college degrees; they’re also eager to use universities as a foil and a scapegoat. We saw that last year when they put on what were essentially show trials of Ivy League presidents over protests against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The purpose wasn’t to defend Jewish students (you’ll forgive me if I have trouble granting the sincerity of Rep. Elise Stefanik, lead inquisitor and one of the most cynically opportunistic characters in Washington); it was to make elite universities an object of anger and contempt.
When Republicans attack higher education as a cauldron of radical ideas that will turn your children against you, they not only undermine colleges and universities that are essential to America’s economy and innovation, they also feed distrust in institutions as a whole that has served Trump so well.
Trump has made many threats against both K-12 and higher education; we don’t know how many he’ll follow up on, or how much enthusiasm Linda McMahon will bring to this fight. But even if he accomplishes only some of his goals, the damage to our country, and one of its greatest engines of social and economic progress, will be severe.
Healthcare executive Rick Jackson clinched the Republican gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday, pulling off a win over Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and securing a spot in the November election against Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms.
The pair advanced from the Republican primary after neither candidate secured the majority needed to avoid a runoff on May 19.
The contest came as Republicans seek to hold the governor’s mansion in a state that has become one of the country’s premier political battlegrounds. Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited and cannot seek re-election, creating the first open governor’s race in Georgia since 2018. Kemp threw his weight behind Jones over the weekend.
Jackson, a businessman who entered politics as an outsider candidatesought to position himself as an alternative to career politicians. His campaign focused heavily on economic issues, government spending and opposition to what he describes as establishment politics.
Jackson has argued that Republicans need a nominee who can energize voters frustrated with the political system. He has also attempted to appeal to conservatives who want a candidate outside Georgia’s existing political leadership structure.
The runoff highlights divisions within the Georgia Republican Party over the direction of the state’s conservative movement after Kemp’s tenure. While both candidates embraced many of the same conservative policy positions, they have differed over experience, electability and the future of Republican leadership in the Peach State.
The race also attracted attention because of Georgia’s importance ahead of the midterms. Democrats have made significant gains in the state over the past decade, winning presidential and Senate races while turning Georgia into a key battleground. Republicans, however, have continued to perform strongly in statewide races, including Kemp’s decisive re-election victory in 2022.
Bottoms, who served as Atlanta’s mayor from 2018 to 2022 and later worked in the Biden administration, secured the Democratic nomination and is preparing for a competitive general election campaign. Democrats view the open-seat contest as an opportunity to regain control of the governor’s office for the first time in more than two decades.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.
A federal judge who was disciplined after an investigation found that she had sex with a police officer in her chambers and attended a partisan event, then lied when confronted with the allegations, has recused herself in a fight over Georgia election records after the U.S. Department of Justice raised questions about her ability to be impartial.
The Justice Department sought to remove U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross from the case, citing her reported attendance at an event for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who prosecuted President Donald Trump. Ross on Tuesday filed an order recusing herself, writing that she was doing so “out of an abundance of caution for the potential perception of bias.”
The Justice Department had sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking an unredacted statewide voter list, and Ross was presiding over that case.
“Both the Trump administration’s present and Willis’s past efforts have become heavily polarized,” Ross wrote, explaining that she “cannot discount” that an objective observer might interpret her attendance at an event sponsored by Willis’ campaign as support for the district attorney’s position, even if she only went to see former colleagues.
Ross received a “private reprimand” after a court investigation found that she had sex in the courthouse with a high-ranking uniformed police officer within earshot of staff, attended a partisan event and then initially lied to deny the allegations.
The investigation report says Ross went to an event hosted by a district attorney’s campaign. The judge said the district attorney had been a friend since 1999 and acknowledged having gone to the a private mixer held on the sidelines of the event to visit with former colleagues in the district attorney’s office.
Ross previously worked in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and overlapped there with Willis there before Willis was district attorney.
Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That case was ultimately dismissed in November.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is rallying support within the State Department to help secure a visa for the mother of a World Cup goalkeeper who was unable to attend her newly-famous son’s match in the United States.
Jeffries learned of the situation after Republic of Cabo Verde goalkeeper Josimar Dias helped his team secure a 0-0 draw with Spain during the island nation’s World Cup debut on Monday. Dias stunned fans after making seven saves against the 2010 World Cup champions.
Dias told ESPN that his mother was unable to attend the match in the U.S. because of difficulties obtaining a visa.
“She didn’t manage to be here because of the visa,” Dias said in press conference after the match, noting that the World Cup was the “most important moment of our lives.”
“The money we have to pay for the visa, we didn’t manage on time. And I would like her to be here,” the goalie said.
After learning of Dias’ story, Jeffries said he reached out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in hopes of helping the goalie’s mother attend Cabo Verde’s the next match in the U.S.
“No mother should miss the chance to see her child make history,” Jeffries wrote on X.
The Cabo Verde national football team shocked Spain on the strength of a historic performance by goalkeeper Vozinha.
His Mom was unable to be there because of visa complications.
No mother should miss the chance to see her child make history.
I have asked Secretary of State…
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) June 16, 2026
In an effort to prevent visitors from overstaying their visas, the U.S. State Department requires that eligible travelers from certain countries, including Cabo Verde, “must post a bond for $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000.”
The Department said that it will waive those visa bond requirements during the 2026 World Cup for “athletes and team members — including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives — who are nationals of countries that are competing,” provided that they meet all visa requirements.
While Dias suggested money was a factor for his mother’s inability to attend the match, a State Department official told MS NOW that it has no record of her applying for one. The official said all relatives of players are eligible for visa bond waivers, and said the State Department is attempting to help with the matter.
Dias, known to fans as Vozinha, is significantly older than most players at 40 years old. Nevertheless, he was named FIFA’s “player of the match.”
After his standout World Cup performance, his following on his Instagram page grew from about 10,000 before Monday’s game to more than 10.5 million by Tuesday.
Cabo Verde’s next match is against Uruguay in Miami on Sunday.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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