How Autocrats Break the Universities — And Why Harvard’s $2B Stand Matters

Trump wants obedience. Harvard chose defiance. Here’s why that matters.

Before Viktor Orbán dismantled Hungary’s democracy, he did something quieter. Slower. But just as lethal.

He went after the universities.

Not with tanks. Not with soldiers. But with legislation, legal traps, funding threats, and bureaucratic reshuffles — the slow, suffocating kind of control that doesn’t make headlines until the air is already gone.

In 2017, Orbán’s government passed a law tailor-made to drive out Central European University (CEU), a top-tier institution. CEU had become a symbol of Western liberal values and open academic discourse. So Orbán killed it — at least in Hungary. Forced into exile, CEU relocated to Vienna.

Then came the rest: bans on gender studies, nationalist revisions of the curriculum, and finally, the ultimate trick — the privatization of Hungary’s public universities into “foundations” staffed with Orbán loyalists. These institutions still exist, but they no longer breathe on their own. They speak with the regime’s voice, because the regime has both its hands on their lungs.

That’s how autocrats think about power: You don’t need to censor every professor. You just need to own the board that hires the deans.

Now look at what’s happening here.

This week, the Trump administration blocked $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University — including $60 million in active contracts — after Harvard refused to accept a set of political demands. Among them: restructuring student disciplinary policy, eliminating diversity in admissions, and decertifying pro-Palestinian groups.

Harvard said no.