MAGA vs. Magna Cum Laude

Trump’s latest tantrum targets Harvard, foreign students, and the very foundation of due process. Because nothing says “patriotism” like weaponizing the government against the Constitution.

Photo by Manu Ros on Unsplash

As we enter Memorial Day weekend—a time to reflect, to honor, to remember the brave men and women who laid down their lives in defense of the U.S. Constitution—it seems fitting, if not tragically ironic, that President Trump is once again pissing all over it.

Let’s talk about what just happened: a federal judge—thank God there are still a few of them left who haven’t drunk the MAGA Kool-Aid—blocked the Trump administration from removing foreign students from Harvard. No crime. No national security threat. No due process. Just good old-fashioned Trump-style retaliation. A policy born from spite, rooted in paranoia, executed with the finesse of a drunk rhinoceros.

The official reason for targeting these students? That’s still a mystery. The real reason? Trump hates being outclassed. Harvard represents everything he despises: intellect, merit, globalism, excellence, facts. You know, the stuff he’s allergic to. He couldn’t get into the school, couldn’t buy respect from it, and certainly couldn’t bribe his way into Harvard, so instead, he lashes out like the petty, insecure tyrant he is. If he can’t be part of the club, he’ll burn the damn clubhouse down.

And because one act of lunacy is never enough, Kristi Noem—the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and full-time Trump sycophant—jumped on a microphone to issue a threat so bone-chilling it sounds like it came from the set of The Handmaid’s Tale: other universities, you better get in line, or you’re next.

Let me get this straight: universities are now being warned to bend the knee to the Trump regime or face academic purges? Are we in America, or Hungary, or Gilead?

Let’s connect some dots. This isn’t just about Harvard or international students. It’s about power. Control. Obedience. Trump doesn’t want immigration reform; he wants submission. He doesn’t want legal oversight; he wants impunity. And if you think I’m exaggerating, remember this: back in 2020, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ruled that my imprisonment by the Trump administration was retaliatory. His exact words? “It was retaliatory.” The government tried to silence me because I wrote a book that told the truth and was additionally enjoined “from any future retaliation against me for exercising my First Amendment rights.” A president used the Justice Department to muzzle his former lawyer and friend. That’s not a democracy; that’s a dictatorship.

And guess what? They’d do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, as I have warned, they are doing it again—only now the target isn’t just one man. It’s an entire institution. Harvard is just the warm-up. If this administration can rip students out of their universities for no reason, imagine what it can do to you.

What Trump is trying to build is a system with no checks, no balances, and no redress. That’s why his allies are trying to gut habeas corpus—the bedrock of legal freedom. Without it, there’s no court review, no fair hearing, no chance to challenge your detention. If Trump has his way, there will be no Constitution; there will be only Trump.

Let me ask you something: is this what our brave and heroic service members fought for? Did they storm Normandy and fight in Kandahar so some reality TV star could turn the country into a banana republic? Did they give their lives so the president could treat higher education like a political hit list?

I think not.

The attack on Harvard is just the latest move in a long and dangerous chess game. It’s not about students. It’s about sending a message. The same message I got when I was thrown into solitary: fall in line or get crushed. That’s the only tune Trump knows. Loyalty to him over the law. Over justice. Over country.

And don’t let the MAGA echo chamber fool you into thinking this is about “protecting American jobs” or “national security.” Please. This is the same guy who employed undocumented workers at his golf clubs and tried to sell nuclear secrets to foreign adversaries. If there’s one thing Trump doesn’t give a shit about, it’s national security. What he does care about is optics. Headlines. Revenge.

Here’s the good news: the courts still work—at least some of them. This judge’s ruling is a flicker of light in a sea of darkness. It tells us that even in this age of MAGA madness, the law can still matter. But that flicker won’t last if we stop paying attention.

So this Memorial Day, don’t just barbecue. Don’t just post a flag emoji and call it patriotism. Reflect. Think. Ask yourself: what kind of country are we becoming when we treat students, domestic and foreign, like criminals and universities like enemy territory?

What are we really memorializing if we let one man destroy everything those fallen heroes gave their lives to protect?

Stay loud. Stay vigilant. And for God’s sake, don’t stay silent.

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