10-05-2025
Harvard, you've got a problem — but Donald Trump's war will backfire
When a head of state picks a fight with a university, you generally expect the university to lose. Even the richest university — say, Harvard — does not have pockets as deep as the government. And as for armed force, to paraphrase Stalin, 'How many divisions does the president of Harvard have?'
And yet the pen is sometimes mightier than the sword, the gown more powerful than the crown. King James II learnt this the hard way in 1687 when he attempted to impose a new president on the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. The college still celebrates its victory over the last Stuart monarch each year at its Restoration dinner.
James had thought he could insert a Roman Catholic as president. The fellows refused,
