UNITED STATES

Trump vows to reclaim campuses ruled by ‘Marxist maniacs’

Donald Trump has pledged to seize the endowments of universities that practise positive discrimination as part of a far-reaching plan to overhaul higher education in the United States, writes Lila Randall for The Telegraph.

In a campaign video last week, the former US president vowed to reclaim campuses that he claimed had been taken over by “Marxist maniacs”. Trump’s latest pledge is a continuation of his efforts to roll back Obama-era policies promoting diversity in universities. It also echoes some of the policies of his Republican rival Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who last year claimed that university campuses are “intellectually repressive environments”.

Trump proposed a new financial structure that would see institutions stripped of their endowments in order to pay the legal fees of students who have lost out on university places as a result of positive discrimination, also known as affirmative action – the practice of favouring individuals from groups regarded as disadvantaged or subject to discrimination.
Full report on The Telegraph site