I honestly believe that the damage that this administration is doing to the US will not be repaired in my lifetime. Good reputations take decades to rebuild once destroyed. And Trump has made sure the rest of the world knows how unreliable and dysfunctional the US has become.
Sadly, he was impeached twice in his first term, but the cowardly Senate refused to convict him. If they had, he wouldn’t be president now. If the Dems flip the house, he may be impeached again, but he won’t get convicted by the Senate. So I can’t see that doing anything, unfortunately, except maybe making him more unhinged if that’s possible.
GOOD Luck with a free and fair election...Ed Martin is in the DOJ now !! The bad news just gets WORSE....elections will be Russia 2.0 style...does ANYONE think trump will give up power and money grab ( spoiler Jan 6th was fair and free ! )
We will have a free and fair election if we all dedicate ourselves to making it so. That is one reason I support Marc Elias and the folks at Democracy Docket. They keep track of every voting case, law, etc., and they fight in court for the rights of every single voter.
In addition to that, we must support the ACLU and other nonprofits that fight in court for our rights. I also work with my local Democratic Party to inform voters (our voters, of course) of their rights and how to make sure their vote is counted. We met today to review a series of fliers we developed a few years ago and decided how to modify them for local elections next fall.
We all must do all we can to promote fair elections.
Who's "we"? The large constituency that watches Murdochian media? The politically naive who only know they will never vote for a black or female candidate? Joe Rogan's fan base?
One thing to remember about US presidential elections: The elections are run by the states. There isn't a direct lever for Congress or the federal executive branch to mess with the machines, the polling or the counting. They'd have to use indirect tricks—usually budgetary—to extort changes from the states.
Taking over the state legislatures is one tactic. Look at North Carolina. It took SIX months to seat the Democrat who won the election to the Supreme Court. There was court case after court case. Now the North Carolina legislature has tried to remove the governor's responsibility to appoint members of the Elections Committee and have assigned that job to the state auditor--who was the first Republican they could find amongst those officials elected statewide. The matter is currently under litigation as it appears to violate the North Carolina constitution.
Yes, he's in charge of pardons and has promised to pardon the same people who planned to kidnap and kill Governor Whitmier. He is explicitly working to build Trump's army.
Cowardly Senate REPUBLICANS refused to convict Trump. More were willing to do so the second time but not enough did, including the Senate leader McConnell, who wanted Trump gone but wanted Republicans to be able to blame the Democrats. He said the judicial system would handle it. How did that work out, Mitch?
It worked out great for Mitch, just great. He shirked his responsibilities, put a permanent stain on the credibility and honor of the senate, put unqualified hacks on the supreme court, enabled the chaos that now plagues the US, and he's still rich.
Well, he put the unqualified hacks on the Supreme Court before the insurrection of January 6, 2021. He also crammed through federal court appointments that gave us the judicial sagacity of Aileen Cannon in Florida. By the time of the insurrection, Mitch had already done his greatest damage. The only thing left was to support Trump in 2024, which he did.
If the Senate is flipped, it's possible that this time Trump would be convicted. But we know this is a political approach, not a legal approach. We need to shut Trump down so that he can stop harming us and the world. Also, if he is out of office, he can once again be prosecuted for his many crimes.
Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely we can win the Senate. 19 out of the 22 Republiccan seats up for re-relection are in Solid Red states where Trump won by more than 10 points.
There isn’t anyone obvious waiting in the wings they I’m aware of. Most of the MAGA replacements in the Republican Party so far at least seem deeply unpopular not only with the MAGA faithful, but the American public. DeSantis went nowhere, people just make fun of JD Vance. I don’t know who the next one will be, but there will be one.
I think you are right. The billionaires, oligarphs, Big Money who now control the media, and the courts will make sure their guy gets in. If we have another election at all.
Several years ago I perceived that we were fated to get a Great Leader, and it would be somebody definitely awful. But I never dreamed that it would be someone so obviously completely repulsive, with less charisma than Hitler.
Agreed. Trump is not actually behind most of what is happening--other than when a shiny object catches his attention. Miller, Vought, and the oligarchs, such as Peter Thiel are running the government.
Rigged elections or no elections might be in the future, so a following won't be necessary. This is about insane wealth taking control. White christian nationalist racists might have a place, but they're being used by JD's Silly Valley friends.
The role of the insane wealthy techbros have helped plant JD as VP. These guys are desperate and driven and most are insanely smart (the high IQ kind) so don't underestimate what they're willing to do.
I don't agree that the current "TechBros" are all that smart. They are not the creators-inventors of the Tech revolution. They are just carpetbagging investors who got lucky in the late 90s early '00. They like to wear the mantle of the "genius tech boy", but they aren't. Just the fact that they are deliberately destroying the very society that made them wealthier than any group of people in history! shows how abysmally dumb they are.
If we consider the degree of further corruption that trump can manage in the 3 years he still has, I would say that Elon will be the next Republican candidate. He has high negatives now but... money?
I don't believe three more years of trump would leave any constitutional rules in place, and I would not put anything beyond Musk's ego, or Republican craving for power. But I really don't think we will see anyone become President of the "United" States in the future.
> I think impeaching Trump would restore US reputation quickly.<
Zero chance of a conviction, I'm pretty sure. Even if the Democrats miraculously emerged with 51 Senators after the midterms, about a third of Senate Republicans would have to join them to send Trump packing. Never say never (Trump's behavior will likely continue to grow more outrageous), but I find it frankly impossible to envisage the circumstances whereby 16 Senate Republicans would cross their God-Emperor.
And the 25th amendment is even tougher, because the same margin (2/3rds) is required in *both* chambers of Congress.
Absent his demise, America and the world are stuck with this monster for the next 3.5 years.
Looks like prayer doesn’t work. Despite hundreds of millions praying for the mango moron’s demise he’s still here. Perhaps our prayers are offset by the Christo-fascist republicans and MAGATs. Hardly likely. It there you go. God, if you are listening please strike Conold the corrupt down.
Well, not to be too much of Debbie Downer, but even if those prayers are answered, the new president will be JD Vance until at least January of 2029. At the risk of breaking Godwin's law, that seems to me like Hitler dying and being replaced by Himmler. I regard Vance as one of core formulators and advancers of the sick MAGA-America First ideology—much more than Trump himself, who is mostly a lazy, unfocused grifter. Yes, he bloviates frequently about a few of his obsessions (immigrants, tariffs, Harvard) but is bereft of any deep thinking or reading with respect to political philosophy or ideology.
But Vance is a committed, ideological, well-read, Bannonite-Yarvinite Maoist.
What about Vance? He is much worse than Trump, being intelligent and self aware, as well as an acolyte of the Heritage/Project 2025 and the "TechBros", all nihilists.
Yes, I know they claim to be religious-feudal types, but what they are doing looks like plain old nihilism to me. And after things crash good and hard, they will not be the ones in power any more, as they believe. They're playing "Sampson-At-The-Temple". At least Sampson knew he'd die too in the destruction.
Unless we could "impeach" the US democracy (especially the Electoral College) that keeps bringing back incompetent and anti-rational Republican presidents and congresses, no country should rely on the US complying with treaties and other international agreements.
I don't think impeaching Trump is enough. Apparently he still enjoys a 48% approval rating - so it's a large faction of Americans who want what he offers. And even if Trump is removed, there's the JD Vance and myriad others standing ready to carry the torch. Maybe not with the same reality-TV appeal...but the fascist, racist, protectionist, agenda and American sense of superiority is huge. Elbows up here from Canada too.
Harvard itself has undergone quite a transformation from starting as a Bible school to the liberal school it is today. Its mission is not to be the best school in the USA. It is far bigger than that. It’s time for Harvard to become a truly global school by opening campuses in other countries and giving to people who need irrespective of the government’s visa policy and other bullshit. Harvard can continue to fight in the USA but its mission should not stop.
I think if Trump's war on that school is allowed to continue, they will indeed have to seriously consider opening a major, degree-granting campus outside the US. Not even the orange sandworm can block a student visa when the issuing government is based in London or Ottawa or Canberra.
Harvard University could create relationships with Canadian universities to give shelter to its foreign students while Harvard creates campuses in Canada. The advantages are that American professors can easily drive to those campuses, the culture in Canada is comparable to American "liberal" culture, and the rule of law still exists in Canada.
Hong Kong has already opened the door to international students from Harvard wishing to finish their degrees. China has called on all Chinese students to return to finish their studies and to continue their research. There will be many opportunities for smart people outside the US.
The CBP does take people into custody without access to a lawyer or a phone call. But would they do this to American citizens whose only "crime" would be to think and teach university students?
I don't think Harvard is a liberal school. They are the ones producing our most important politicians, mostly rather conservative (including Obama), our business executives, doctors, lawyers and so on.
They are a bastion of old-fashioned conservatism, the kind that supported the US Constitution, the tripartite government, Democracy. So Project 2025 fear and hate them, as they hate all educational systems not controlled by themselves. My guess is they picked the most prestigious & powerful institution to publicly wreck. If they can destroy Harvard, who can stand against them? (they reason).
I went to Harvard and I agree that we can’t call it a ‘liberal’ school. However, what it does is encourage open conversations and lets opposing thoughts coexist. There are professors who won’t be in the same room when someone else is present. But the school gives them both freedom to express themselves and win through dialogue, not diktat. I would more appropriately call it progressive.
Before Trump Bush had already done a lot of damage to our reputation with things like lying us into war and expecting our allies to support us, looking into Putin’s eyes and seeing his soul and walking away from the nuclear deal we had with North Korea — a subject the media quickly buried but was not only clearly massive mistake since NK is now a very dangerous, nuclear power.
The only way to regain trust is to stop electing Republicans now that they are all extremists and cowards.
Tammy, this is what worries me, too. The election of Barack Obama was able to restore the damage done to our global reputation by Bush/Chaney pretty quickly; the Biden administration had a tougher row to hoe after Trump’s first term. And now, we’re truly seen as untrustworthy. It is sickening and depressing.
I disagree- I think the opposite. The fact that higher ed has become a key target proves that it’s been effective in fostering skills and values that threaten authoritarianism. Of the minority of college educated who voted for this regime, many did so because of economic or social self-interest (retaining or aspiring to privilege, whether racial, gendered, ethnic, or nationalistic). Their violence (rhetorical and physical) is a sign of weakness.
The American public seems indifferent to the harm Trump has caused globally. They also appear unconcerned about his crypto-themed dinner, Trump Media & Technology Group's potential profiteering from cryptocurrency, or the Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar—all of which could plausibly constitute corruption.
And to some extent, as Professor Krugman alluded, we’re back to our beaten-up K-12 school systems! Part of both the indifference and the cluelessness is the treatment and the educations too many students have been exposed to, regardless of the many fine teachers who try, with too little support and too many barriers, to prepare them for the changing world they enter.
Rikeijin, The fact, described by you, that Americans seem oblivious to Authoritarianism and corruption in government, may be the biggest problem that people who still believe in the principles of democracy have to solve. This is the reason we have this situation. Is it the right wing media, identity politics, or the economy? It is probably a combination of all these. Democrats can’t seem to penetrate the bubble of a public that no longer cares about democracy. That may be the reason that the Democrats are stymied now and seem frozen into inaction.
Yep, MAGA is completely uninterested in the rest of the world. I’ve found several who don’t believe the crypto stories. They don’t trust the media reporting unless it’s Fox News.
>The American public seems indifferent to the harm Trump has caused globally...<
I think you mean "about half of" the American public are indifferent.
I'd be very surprised if that percentage doesn't grow substantially given the trajectory we're on just in terms of the economy, not to mention other areas of national life.
Considering the number of *liberals* who disagree with me about banning crypto, it's not a surprise that dipshits are unconcerned about his crypto-themed dinner. It should have been outlawed long ago; now we're on to the AI hucksters needing to be taken out back and shot.
The damage this administration is doing to the WORLD will not be repaired in your lifetime (or mine). Hard to list it all but the destruction of American leadership is paramount to me.
It's probably true for most of us, considering that it will take decades to recover from this - if at all possible. After all, we still haven't fully recovered from the damage done by St. Reagan, and the damage done by the Orange Scourge is on top of that, so it could potentially take a whole century or even longer.
Safe bet even if you're a fetus. I mean, the US still hasn't *fully* recovered from the Civil War. Crises sufficiently large in scale cause historical reverberations for many, many decades, sometimes centuries.
Here's an interesting article suggesting that economic inequality in Britain can still be attributed to the Norman Conquest (1066)—nearly one thousand years ago!
Who could have guessed that the greedy pursuit of infinite wealth by the Silicon Valley elite would lead to social media and smart phones that would end up allowing our enemies to use psyops to control the minds of the masses leading to our own demise? But ya, let's build a missile defense system to keep enemy missiles from physically destroying our already mentally destroyed country.
Our enemies? We're doing this to ourselves. What's happening now is the long cold vengeance of the oligarchs and fundamentalists of the 30's in response to the actions of the Great Class Traitor FDR.
See this for just the attacks on academic freedom:
As one commenter suggested, impeaching would restore some faith that our government and separation of powers still works.
If that does not happen, a Dem congress would have to write many laws making sure this can never happen again and taking all tariff power away from the president.
A lot of laws are simply being ignored, as well, so likely some sort of constitutional amendment will be needed making impeachment not the only removal process. Maybe in an amendment one could recall a president or legislator. Congress would be more likely to vote for a recall election to take place than vote impeach, one wonders or it could simply be a midterm option (however recalling or impeaching would give is Vance...sigh). The GOP in congress does not seem to like to take responsibility. Odd that those who have the power to send our young men and women to war where they risk life and limb defending our nation, are too wimpy to even engage in a mere vote to protect our country and constitution fearing a mere job loss. Disgusting.
Until the Republican party admits their mistakes all the work to restore trust would be gone the next time people decide they want another Republican President.
No point in wasting time on something that can be destroyed so easily. Best to spend their time investigating right wing and corporate corruption and throwing criminals like Trump in jail.
I’m getting such an education, Paul. Thank you and the other experts here on Substack who clarify the current chaos. We must stand up to this idiotic regime of know-nothing bullies.
I hate to admit my dread of being forceably immersed in their madness, because that feels like handing a victory to MAGA. So, I’m not kidding when I say that your summation — “this idiotic regime of know-nothing bullies” — is perfect, and that I may adopt it as a mantra to remind me that the world, someday, somehow, will eventually regard them with such appropriate dismissal.
Did you know he’s one of my absolute favorites? I’d love to ask Mr. Cleese, if he’d indulge the question. Seems tricky. Not exactly a topic of levity, like spoofing pavement pizza. Might come off as beating the proverbial dead parrot. Still, I would pay dearly to see a Cleese reprise (does that rhyme?) of Springtime for Hitler, orange edition.
Many of these students also stay back and contribute and make USA a technology powerhouse. More than half of modern inventions and businesses today are driven by these students who stayed back. MAGA poster boy Musk himself came on a student VISA.
I always thought of Trump as the stupid President for the stupid people. Yes, that is a broad and very judgmental statement but, in my mind, it boils down the reality of the situation.
In Trump 2.0, the stupidity is overwhelming and it is going to have far reaching ramifications.
A Personal Reflection on the War Against International Education in the U.S.
Paul Krugman’s article highlights a deeply troubling shift in U.S. policy: the growing hostility toward international students. As someone who had the privilege to study in the United States, I feel compelled to respond.
In 1986, I earned my Master’s in International Management at Thunderbird University in Glendale, Arizona—then a globally respected institution. That one year in the U.S. was transformative. It taught me not just business principles, but the values of openness, freedom of expression, and democratic pluralism. I returned to Belgium—my home country, a prosperous and socially protective nation—with an enduring admiration for the American model of free thought and open debate.
What I see unfolding now is a tragic reversal of those values. The reported directive to halt visa processing for international students, and the attempt to vet applicants based on their social media history, is more than a bureaucratic nuisance—it is a direct attack on intellectual freedom and cultural exchange.
International students contribute far more than tuition fees. They enrich academic discourse, sustain research excellence, and carry with them the values of open societies when they return home. Shutting them out based on vague ideological tests does not make America safer. It makes it smaller—less competitive, less dynamic, and less respected globally.
Coercing top universities into compliance with incoherent political agendas, threatening their autonomy, and weaponizing visa policies for partisan purposes is not only short-sighted—it is un-American in the truest sense of the word. It undermines the very principles the U.S. has long championed: liberty, opportunity, and the belief that ideas should be tested in open forums, not censored by authoritarian decree.
Europe, too, has its share of institutional imperfections. But we continue to uphold democratic values, even when the debate is difficult. In contrast, the U.S. now appears to be flirting with a model that increasingly resembles the authoritarianism it once opposed—where dissent is punished, diversity is suspect, and truth is what power says it is.
It is not too late. The U.S. can still reclaim its place as a beacon for the world’s brightest minds. But this will require courage—not only from courts and institutions, but from the American people, to resist those who mistake nationalism for patriotism, and suppression for strength.
We owe that to the students who still dream of studying in America—not just to earn a degree, but to believe in a society where learning and liberty go hand in hand.
I believe in the same America as you do, Paul. Trump and his scurrying minions of ignorance and cruelty may try to shut us off from the rest of the world, but we don’t have to let them succeed, not if we resist. Not if we don’t bow down.
As George Harrison sang, this too shall pass. I don’t know how long it will take, but this regime will not destroy the spirit of freedom in America.
It, they, Trump and his fascist cohort, will not destroy our quest for learning, knowledge and understanding. They will not destroy our compassion and empathy for others. We will not let them.
Together, all of us who oppose this retreat, isolation and worship of ignorance, will defeat them in the end.
Voter suppression is widespread. The Democratic party remains leaderless and rudderless. SCOTUS either supports Trump's moves or issues lackluster orders.
Americans have only engaged in 2 half-day protests, as their rights and entitlements have been systematically eroded.
Even if Democrats regain the House in 2026, they have no power without the Senate and they will be blamed for the faltering economy, inflation, massive Medicaid cuts that are tined to occur on their watch.
At best, if this can be fixed, it will be a multi-generational task.
hw, of course it will take generations. This fascist movement, this fascist state, didn’t come into being overnight. It took generations, starting at least as far back as the 1930s. But time starts again now. I don’t have all the answers, I may have very few of them, I may have none.
But the one thing I do know is that we, all of us in good faith who refuse to live under a dictatorship, soft or hard, must work together and not engage in partisan bickering and power struggles, which are already forming at the edges of the resistance.
And Trump may be laying the seeds of his own defeat by overreaching and causing more and more pain for the people who voted him into office in the first place.
Also, if, and I say if, we can retake the House from Trump’s minions, he will never be able to pass any more of his agenda into law again. If that pushes him further into cruelty, violence and lawlessness, good. Let him reveal who and what he truly is for all the world, and America, to see.
If Trump isn’t stopped, by legal and lawful means first, Americans will lose everything, or close to. His supporters are only beginning to feel the pain he is bringing them. It is coming. It may take until September, October or November, but it is coming. Every act of resistance is a necessary step in opposition, but alone these are only delaying tactics. It will take the withdrawal of support from enough of his supporters to begin the collapse of the regime.
If you are right, then there may be no hope. I would rather act on the premise that you are wrong.
Interacting with people from other backgrounds and places, tends to make me more tolerant... I'm sure that that is not his goal. I think his (Putin's) goal is to completely isolate us on the world stage.
The problem with Paul's reasoning is that it's rooted in reality. For Rightwingers like Trump and Rubio, there's a completely different reality. In their reality, foreign students don't pay a single penny of tuition--they get comped by the schools in the name of DEI. Worse, because they're foreigners who likely hate America, those students get all the goodies that illegal immigrants get--free food, free healthcare, free housing, free phones, free clothes, free cars, and between $5,000 and $10,000 a month in walking-around money.
All of this sounds about as plausible as lizard people living in the core of the Earth. But to Rightwingers, THIS is rock-solid reality.
Rubio knows the reality. Trump doesn't care because he lives in his own reality. Both make up shit about foreign students because they know The Base are ignorant about higher education and how any of it works. They see their tax money taken out of their checks and all they think is that somebody else must be using their hard earned money. They don't want to pay any tax or want some kind of flat tax or other scheme that will take more from them in the long run. While many of us know the reality of foreign students as well as new immigrants, there are huge swaths of our nation that lives in White Isolation, knowing nothing, not caring to know, and want all the money they pay in taxes to come back to them. Heck, they don't even believe it's the rich that are stealing from them! Unfortunately I don't see any way to change their minds
MAGA doesn't care, but this is a cultural, scholarly tragedy. I was among the minority of US-born members of a social science PhD program at Penn. The overseas students were the true stars. I remember being humiliated when playing bridge with my good friends from Iran, Sweden, and Portugal. They and several others from Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, etc., have all gone off to do great things, and left with a good attitude about the US. They could not have learned what they did anyplace else. They raised me up as well. Nowhere since have I been surrounded by people as capable and creative.
Thank you Paul for writing about these things. As a EU citizen, it was my son‘s dream last year to study in the US but .. he got rejected in the last moment by a famous US college. Fortunately he got rejected, as we had to find out now woth this admin in power and there crazy pomitics. My son was in the US 2 years ago in a summer school camp and enjoyed the international atmosphere on the campus. A real pity what Trump an his admin does to this very idea of exchanging cultural aspects. From our perspective in Europe, you are so right about what you were writing about in this article!
I am hopeful that after 3 years and sth there will be a new admin reinstating this old politics with international exchanges between US and its old partners!
I am afraid I agree with Tammy Brantley. As an academic I am beginning to see the attrition. The best will leave or stay away. Once the gears have been sanded it will take a long time to clean up the mess. I hope the judiciary can move quickly to stop this disruption.
The Norwegian organization Aker Scholarship a few days ago told one Harvard student to catch the first plane out of USA because they feared visa trouble for this student.
A 25% cut to federal funding for R&D is estimated to cause an over 4% drop in GDP in the long run according to the linked American University study. Cuts to NIH and NSF look to be much larger than that. The aggressive incompetence of R's and Trump won't be making America great, it will be making America considerably poorer.
How can that compare to gutting the entire federal safety net that keeps even the poorest participating in the economy? Or removing FEMA-assisted recoveries that bring damaged communities back into productive contribution to the economy? Or loss of basic labor from the agricultural and construction sectors? Or defunding programs that catch problems with livestock early enough to prevent a sector-crippling pandemic?
As someone from outside the US, it is impossible to believe how far the country has fallen in such a short time and how much untold damage will occur because of this action. My 19 year old son had talked about studying in the US for a semester as part of the university exchange programs. He, of course, won’t be traveling to the US now. He is likely to study somewhere else. He will gain experience and perspectives from country he goes to and students who study here from abroad (as part of these exchanges) will gain experiences and perspectives. And we will all be better for it. Best of luck USA.
Not only is education a great industry, it creates other industries. Elon Musk came to the US ostensibly as a graduate student. Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) did too. As did Jensen Huang CEO of NVIDIA. Do we really want to cut off the pipeline that brings us creators of trillion dollar companies?
Actually, I suspect the Trumpies regard foreign students more as spies than assets. The thinking probably goes that these students will learn how to create these great industries, go home, and build them there.
I believe that foreign students Peter Thiel and David Sacks's anger at their Stanford experience was the basis of much of the last 25-30 years of villainizing higher education. Think about how many ways those two and their friends and colleagues are currently enmeshed in the administration. Read their "Diversity Myth" and then think about Musk, Vance, Yale, South Africa, Palantir, etc.
Thanks Professor Krugman. My career was in academia, so what you say seems so obvious to me. I don't know why the rest of the country can't see it or ignores it.
It seems like all of the normal sensible people disappeared after the last election (November 2024). Many of the state legislatures that I hear about are completely devoted to culture war issues and have no time for anything related to helping the economy or jobs. They are busy making life hard for immigrants, trans people, and putting up tablets of the ten commandments.
I am afraid that this will not change anytime soon. The Democrats have become mute.
I think that DEI is a good thing but apparently no politician can make a case for it. The same with international students. International students coming here and paying full tuition is a good thing, but it seems that no politicians can make the case.
Treating everyone with respect including trans people is a good thing but everyone runs from the trans issue.
I honestly believe that the damage that this administration is doing to the US will not be repaired in my lifetime. Good reputations take decades to rebuild once destroyed. And Trump has made sure the rest of the world knows how unreliable and dysfunctional the US has become.
Watching this from Canada, I think impeaching Trump would restore US reputation quickly. But other than that, yeah, it's gonna take a while...
Sadly, he was impeached twice in his first term, but the cowardly Senate refused to convict him. If they had, he wouldn’t be president now. If the Dems flip the house, he may be impeached again, but he won’t get convicted by the Senate. So I can’t see that doing anything, unfortunately, except maybe making him more unhinged if that’s possible.
GOOD Luck with a free and fair election...Ed Martin is in the DOJ now !! The bad news just gets WORSE....elections will be Russia 2.0 style...does ANYONE think trump will give up power and money grab ( spoiler Jan 6th was fair and free ! )
We will have a free and fair election if we all dedicate ourselves to making it so. That is one reason I support Marc Elias and the folks at Democracy Docket. They keep track of every voting case, law, etc., and they fight in court for the rights of every single voter.
In addition to that, we must support the ACLU and other nonprofits that fight in court for our rights. I also work with my local Democratic Party to inform voters (our voters, of course) of their rights and how to make sure their vote is counted. We met today to review a series of fliers we developed a few years ago and decided how to modify them for local elections next fall.
We all must do all we can to promote fair elections.
Who's "we"? The large constituency that watches Murdochian media? The politically naive who only know they will never vote for a black or female candidate? Joe Rogan's fan base?
One thing to remember about US presidential elections: The elections are run by the states. There isn't a direct lever for Congress or the federal executive branch to mess with the machines, the polling or the counting. They'd have to use indirect tricks—usually budgetary—to extort changes from the states.
Taking over the state legislatures is one tactic. Look at North Carolina. It took SIX months to seat the Democrat who won the election to the Supreme Court. There was court case after court case. Now the North Carolina legislature has tried to remove the governor's responsibility to appoint members of the Elections Committee and have assigned that job to the state auditor--who was the first Republican they could find amongst those officials elected statewide. The matter is currently under litigation as it appears to violate the North Carolina constitution.
Or good ol' gerrymandering.
I thought Martin's nomination was withdrawn - after being held up in the Senate for eternity.
they gave him another job at Justice that did not need confirmation but where he can do lots of harm.
Yes, he's in charge of pardons and has promised to pardon the same people who planned to kidnap and kill Governor Whitmier. He is explicitly working to build Trump's army.
Oh, that's bad. Really bad.
Cowardly Senate REPUBLICANS refused to convict Trump. More were willing to do so the second time but not enough did, including the Senate leader McConnell, who wanted Trump gone but wanted Republicans to be able to blame the Democrats. He said the judicial system would handle it. How did that work out, Mitch?
It worked out great for Mitch, just great. He shirked his responsibilities, put a permanent stain on the credibility and honor of the senate, put unqualified hacks on the supreme court, enabled the chaos that now plagues the US, and he's still rich.
Well, he put the unqualified hacks on the Supreme Court before the insurrection of January 6, 2021. He also crammed through federal court appointments that gave us the judicial sagacity of Aileen Cannon in Florida. By the time of the insurrection, Mitch had already done his greatest damage. The only thing left was to support Trump in 2024, which he did.
I. E., refused to convict!
If the Senate is flipped, it's possible that this time Trump would be convicted. But we know this is a political approach, not a legal approach. We need to shut Trump down so that he can stop harming us and the world. Also, if he is out of office, he can once again be prosecuted for his many crimes.
He will be impeached when the Republicans realize that they will lose the Senate and the House by a lot. Not by 2 or 3 seats.
Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely we can win the Senate. 19 out of the 22 Republiccan seats up for re-relection are in Solid Red states where Trump won by more than 10 points.
Hell has a dank outhouse all ready for Trump to spend eternity in. At the bottom of the cesspit under the outhouse is a place for Mitch.
There isn’t anyone obvious waiting in the wings they I’m aware of. Most of the MAGA replacements in the Republican Party so far at least seem deeply unpopular not only with the MAGA faithful, but the American public. DeSantis went nowhere, people just make fun of JD Vance. I don’t know who the next one will be, but there will be one.
PROJECT 2025 has all laid out....the Oligarchs will choose !
I think you are right. The billionaires, oligarphs, Big Money who now control the media, and the courts will make sure their guy gets in. If we have another election at all.
Several years ago I perceived that we were fated to get a Great Leader, and it would be somebody definitely awful. But I never dreamed that it would be someone so obviously completely repulsive, with less charisma than Hitler.
Agreed. Trump is not actually behind most of what is happening--other than when a shiny object catches his attention. Miller, Vought, and the oligarchs, such as Peter Thiel are running the government.
Couchboy Vance.
Lol.. that made me laugh, but I'm not sure Vance has the following that Trump does.
He doesn't, but he's malleable and compliant, and that's all they need.
Rigged elections or no elections might be in the future, so a following won't be necessary. This is about insane wealth taking control. White christian nationalist racists might have a place, but they're being used by JD's Silly Valley friends.
The role of the insane wealthy techbros have helped plant JD as VP. These guys are desperate and driven and most are insanely smart (the high IQ kind) so don't underestimate what they're willing to do.
I don't agree that the current "TechBros" are all that smart. They are not the creators-inventors of the Tech revolution. They are just carpetbagging investors who got lucky in the late 90s early '00. They like to wear the mantle of the "genius tech boy", but they aren't. Just the fact that they are deliberately destroying the very society that made them wealthier than any group of people in history! shows how abysmally dumb they are.
Here, have another LIKE: 🤍
If we consider the degree of further corruption that trump can manage in the 3 years he still has, I would say that Elon will be the next Republican candidate. He has high negatives now but... money?
No, Trump is president until he dies or there is a civil war. He will not leave office.
Elon was not born in America. They would have to change the Constitution or ignore it. The way Elon is talking now, I don't think he wants it anyway.
I don't believe three more years of trump would leave any constitutional rules in place, and I would not put anything beyond Musk's ego, or Republican craving for power. But I really don't think we will see anyone become President of the "United" States in the future.
> I think impeaching Trump would restore US reputation quickly.<
Zero chance of a conviction, I'm pretty sure. Even if the Democrats miraculously emerged with 51 Senators after the midterms, about a third of Senate Republicans would have to join them to send Trump packing. Never say never (Trump's behavior will likely continue to grow more outrageous), but I find it frankly impossible to envisage the circumstances whereby 16 Senate Republicans would cross their God-Emperor.
And the 25th amendment is even tougher, because the same margin (2/3rds) is required in *both* chambers of Congress.
Absent his demise, America and the world are stuck with this monster for the next 3.5 years.
Looks like prayer doesn’t work. Despite hundreds of millions praying for the mango moron’s demise he’s still here. Perhaps our prayers are offset by the Christo-fascist republicans and MAGATs. Hardly likely. It there you go. God, if you are listening please strike Conold the corrupt down.
Well, not to be too much of Debbie Downer, but even if those prayers are answered, the new president will be JD Vance until at least January of 2029. At the risk of breaking Godwin's law, that seems to me like Hitler dying and being replaced by Himmler. I regard Vance as one of core formulators and advancers of the sick MAGA-America First ideology—much more than Trump himself, who is mostly a lazy, unfocused grifter. Yes, he bloviates frequently about a few of his obsessions (immigrants, tariffs, Harvard) but is bereft of any deep thinking or reading with respect to political philosophy or ideology.
But Vance is a committed, ideological, well-read, Bannonite-Yarvinite Maoist.
Maybe Vance would turn over a new leaf when ICE inadvertently grabs his wife and kids and deports them to Sudan.
What about Vance? He is much worse than Trump, being intelligent and self aware, as well as an acolyte of the Heritage/Project 2025 and the "TechBros", all nihilists.
Yes, I know they claim to be religious-feudal types, but what they are doing looks like plain old nihilism to me. And after things crash good and hard, they will not be the ones in power any more, as they believe. They're playing "Sampson-At-The-Temple". At least Sampson knew he'd die too in the destruction.
Yeah, we have our work cut out for us.
Unless we could "impeach" the US democracy (especially the Electoral College) that keeps bringing back incompetent and anti-rational Republican presidents and congresses, no country should rely on the US complying with treaties and other international agreements.
We would have to impeach to otherwise remove the MAGA contingent of the Republican Party. Excise it like a cancer.
The Republican Party is a goner. As they value Trump over rule of law, there really isn't anything left to salvage.
I don't think impeaching Trump is enough. Apparently he still enjoys a 48% approval rating - so it's a large faction of Americans who want what he offers. And even if Trump is removed, there's the JD Vance and myriad others standing ready to carry the torch. Maybe not with the same reality-TV appeal...but the fascist, racist, protectionist, agenda and American sense of superiority is huge. Elbows up here from Canada too.
I agree, but looking at the incompetent clowns confirmed, it's hard to imagine he would get the votes from Congress to have him removed.
Harvard itself has undergone quite a transformation from starting as a Bible school to the liberal school it is today. Its mission is not to be the best school in the USA. It is far bigger than that. It’s time for Harvard to become a truly global school by opening campuses in other countries and giving to people who need irrespective of the government’s visa policy and other bullshit. Harvard can continue to fight in the USA but its mission should not stop.
I think if Trump's war on that school is allowed to continue, they will indeed have to seriously consider opening a major, degree-granting campus outside the US. Not even the orange sandworm can block a student visa when the issuing government is based in London or Ottawa or Canberra.
Harvard University could create relationships with Canadian universities to give shelter to its foreign students while Harvard creates campuses in Canada. The advantages are that American professors can easily drive to those campuses, the culture in Canada is comparable to American "liberal" culture, and the rule of law still exists in Canada.
Hong Kong has already opened the door to international students from Harvard wishing to finish their degrees. China has called on all Chinese students to return to finish their studies and to continue their research. There will be many opportunities for smart people outside the US.
This idea is outstanding.
"American professors can easily drive to those campuses"
And then how easily will they drive back across the border on their way home?
To be arrested by CBP at the border.
The CBP does take people into custody without access to a lawyer or a phone call. But would they do this to American citizens whose only "crime" would be to think and teach university students?
Sandworm Anti-defamation League on line one, sir....
I don't think Harvard is a liberal school. They are the ones producing our most important politicians, mostly rather conservative (including Obama), our business executives, doctors, lawyers and so on.
They are a bastion of old-fashioned conservatism, the kind that supported the US Constitution, the tripartite government, Democracy. So Project 2025 fear and hate them, as they hate all educational systems not controlled by themselves. My guess is they picked the most prestigious & powerful institution to publicly wreck. If they can destroy Harvard, who can stand against them? (they reason).
I went to Harvard and I agree that we can’t call it a ‘liberal’ school. However, what it does is encourage open conversations and lets opposing thoughts coexist. There are professors who won’t be in the same room when someone else is present. But the school gives them both freedom to express themselves and win through dialogue, not diktat. I would more appropriately call it progressive.
Before Trump Bush had already done a lot of damage to our reputation with things like lying us into war and expecting our allies to support us, looking into Putin’s eyes and seeing his soul and walking away from the nuclear deal we had with North Korea — a subject the media quickly buried but was not only clearly massive mistake since NK is now a very dangerous, nuclear power.
The only way to regain trust is to stop electing Republicans now that they are all extremists and cowards.
Both Bush's, and St. Reagan, and Tricky Dickie...
Tammy, this is what worries me, too. The election of Barack Obama was able to restore the damage done to our global reputation by Bush/Chaney pretty quickly; the Biden administration had a tougher row to hoe after Trump’s first term. And now, we’re truly seen as untrustworthy. It is sickening and depressing.
Sadly I must agree. Yet the abject ignorance that allowed this to happen is a stain on our education system.
I disagree- I think the opposite. The fact that higher ed has become a key target proves that it’s been effective in fostering skills and values that threaten authoritarianism. Of the minority of college educated who voted for this regime, many did so because of economic or social self-interest (retaining or aspiring to privilege, whether racial, gendered, ethnic, or nationalistic). Their violence (rhetorical and physical) is a sign of weakness.
Low information voters don't care so long as gas prices stay low.
I think Andy was referring to our K-12 education system, which has taken a beating from most administrations since at least 1980.
However, Trump’s poll numbers are on the rise.
https://imgpoi.com/i/BDVDDE.png
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index has surged to 98.
https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence
The American public seems indifferent to the harm Trump has caused globally. They also appear unconcerned about his crypto-themed dinner, Trump Media & Technology Group's potential profiteering from cryptocurrency, or the Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar—all of which could plausibly constitute corruption.
It's partly indifference, and partly cluelessness. An awful lot of Americans don't seem to know what's going on beyond their own front doors.
Fox poisoning ...
And to some extent, as Professor Krugman alluded, we’re back to our beaten-up K-12 school systems! Part of both the indifference and the cluelessness is the treatment and the educations too many students have been exposed to, regardless of the many fine teachers who try, with too little support and too many barriers, to prepare them for the changing world they enter.
Rikeijin, The fact, described by you, that Americans seem oblivious to Authoritarianism and corruption in government, may be the biggest problem that people who still believe in the principles of democracy have to solve. This is the reason we have this situation. Is it the right wing media, identity politics, or the economy? It is probably a combination of all these. Democrats can’t seem to penetrate the bubble of a public that no longer cares about democracy. That may be the reason that the Democrats are stymied now and seem frozen into inaction.
Right wing media is a big problem because it doesn’t report all the bad Trump news.
Yep, MAGA is completely uninterested in the rest of the world. I’ve found several who don’t believe the crypto stories. They don’t trust the media reporting unless it’s Fox News.
>The American public seems indifferent to the harm Trump has caused globally...<
I think you mean "about half of" the American public are indifferent.
I'd be very surprised if that percentage doesn't grow substantially given the trajectory we're on just in terms of the economy, not to mention other areas of national life.
They haven't encountered the empty shelves yet.
Considering the number of *liberals* who disagree with me about banning crypto, it's not a surprise that dipshits are unconcerned about his crypto-themed dinner. It should have been outlawed long ago; now we're on to the AI hucksters needing to be taken out back and shot.
The damage this administration is doing to the WORLD will not be repaired in your lifetime (or mine). Hard to list it all but the destruction of American leadership is paramount to me.
Safe bet (depending on your age). Certainly true for me.
It's probably true for most of us, considering that it will take decades to recover from this - if at all possible. After all, we still haven't fully recovered from the damage done by St. Reagan, and the damage done by the Orange Scourge is on top of that, so it could potentially take a whole century or even longer.
Safe bet even if you're a fetus. I mean, the US still hasn't *fully* recovered from the Civil War. Crises sufficiently large in scale cause historical reverberations for many, many decades, sometimes centuries.
Here's an interesting article suggesting that economic inequality in Britain can still be attributed to the Norman Conquest (1066)—nearly one thousand years ago!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans
Fascinating article. Thanks.
Who could have guessed that the greedy pursuit of infinite wealth by the Silicon Valley elite would lead to social media and smart phones that would end up allowing our enemies to use psyops to control the minds of the masses leading to our own demise? But ya, let's build a missile defense system to keep enemy missiles from physically destroying our already mentally destroyed country.
Our enemies? We're doing this to ourselves. What's happening now is the long cold vengeance of the oligarchs and fundamentalists of the 30's in response to the actions of the Great Class Traitor FDR.
See this for just the attacks on academic freedom:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-24-2025
Time for the civilized world to quarantine tge U.S. for the next 44 months.
Here we go again, more "own the libs" spite induced stupidity from the emotionally wounded, innumerate MAGA dunces.
What's next, an Executive Order declaring Harvard faculty have a lower IQ than the current White House?
I'm waiting fro trump to write a troof antisocial screed commanding the tide to not come in.
I honestly think that things have to go worse before they can start to get better. I feel it might take some decades.
...decades, and a huge human cost.
As one commenter suggested, impeaching would restore some faith that our government and separation of powers still works.
If that does not happen, a Dem congress would have to write many laws making sure this can never happen again and taking all tariff power away from the president.
A lot of laws are simply being ignored, as well, so likely some sort of constitutional amendment will be needed making impeachment not the only removal process. Maybe in an amendment one could recall a president or legislator. Congress would be more likely to vote for a recall election to take place than vote impeach, one wonders or it could simply be a midterm option (however recalling or impeaching would give is Vance...sigh). The GOP in congress does not seem to like to take responsibility. Odd that those who have the power to send our young men and women to war where they risk life and limb defending our nation, are too wimpy to even engage in a mere vote to protect our country and constitution fearing a mere job loss. Disgusting.
A future Democratic POTUS would be stupid to try.
Until the Republican party admits their mistakes all the work to restore trust would be gone the next time people decide they want another Republican President.
No point in wasting time on something that can be destroyed so easily. Best to spend their time investigating right wing and corporate corruption and throwing criminals like Trump in jail.
I feel the same. Just trying to figure out existence in the time I have left.
right-dysfunctionality can be easily reversed by a new administration,but reliability-slowly-if ever
I’m getting such an education, Paul. Thank you and the other experts here on Substack who clarify the current chaos. We must stand up to this idiotic regime of know-nothing bullies.
I hate to admit my dread of being forceably immersed in their madness, because that feels like handing a victory to MAGA. So, I’m not kidding when I say that your summation — “this idiotic regime of know-nothing bullies” — is perfect, and that I may adopt it as a mantra to remind me that the world, someday, somehow, will eventually regard them with such appropriate dismissal.
Thanks for this, Hal. I find it interesting that John Cleese has joined us here on Substack. Monty Python would have made a great sketch of it all.
Did you know he’s one of my absolute favorites? I’d love to ask Mr. Cleese, if he’d indulge the question. Seems tricky. Not exactly a topic of levity, like spoofing pavement pizza. Might come off as beating the proverbial dead parrot. Still, I would pay dearly to see a Cleese reprise (does that rhyme?) of Springtime for Hitler, orange edition.
You are brave
It helps to be almost 80, Joerg.
Many of these students also stay back and contribute and make USA a technology powerhouse. More than half of modern inventions and businesses today are driven by these students who stayed back. MAGA poster boy Musk himself came on a student VISA.
I always thought of Trump as the stupid President for the stupid people. Yes, that is a broad and very judgmental statement but, in my mind, it boils down the reality of the situation.
In Trump 2.0, the stupidity is overwhelming and it is going to have far reaching ramifications.
A Personal Reflection on the War Against International Education in the U.S.
Paul Krugman’s article highlights a deeply troubling shift in U.S. policy: the growing hostility toward international students. As someone who had the privilege to study in the United States, I feel compelled to respond.
In 1986, I earned my Master’s in International Management at Thunderbird University in Glendale, Arizona—then a globally respected institution. That one year in the U.S. was transformative. It taught me not just business principles, but the values of openness, freedom of expression, and democratic pluralism. I returned to Belgium—my home country, a prosperous and socially protective nation—with an enduring admiration for the American model of free thought and open debate.
What I see unfolding now is a tragic reversal of those values. The reported directive to halt visa processing for international students, and the attempt to vet applicants based on their social media history, is more than a bureaucratic nuisance—it is a direct attack on intellectual freedom and cultural exchange.
International students contribute far more than tuition fees. They enrich academic discourse, sustain research excellence, and carry with them the values of open societies when they return home. Shutting them out based on vague ideological tests does not make America safer. It makes it smaller—less competitive, less dynamic, and less respected globally.
Coercing top universities into compliance with incoherent political agendas, threatening their autonomy, and weaponizing visa policies for partisan purposes is not only short-sighted—it is un-American in the truest sense of the word. It undermines the very principles the U.S. has long championed: liberty, opportunity, and the belief that ideas should be tested in open forums, not censored by authoritarian decree.
Europe, too, has its share of institutional imperfections. But we continue to uphold democratic values, even when the debate is difficult. In contrast, the U.S. now appears to be flirting with a model that increasingly resembles the authoritarianism it once opposed—where dissent is punished, diversity is suspect, and truth is what power says it is.
It is not too late. The U.S. can still reclaim its place as a beacon for the world’s brightest minds. But this will require courage—not only from courts and institutions, but from the American people, to resist those who mistake nationalism for patriotism, and suppression for strength.
We owe that to the students who still dream of studying in America—not just to earn a degree, but to believe in a society where learning and liberty go hand in hand.
Erik Verbeeck
Consultant & Former U.S. Graduate Student
Belgium
I believe in the same America as you do, Paul. Trump and his scurrying minions of ignorance and cruelty may try to shut us off from the rest of the world, but we don’t have to let them succeed, not if we resist. Not if we don’t bow down.
As George Harrison sang, this too shall pass. I don’t know how long it will take, but this regime will not destroy the spirit of freedom in America.
It, they, Trump and his fascist cohort, will not destroy our quest for learning, knowledge and understanding. They will not destroy our compassion and empathy for others. We will not let them.
Together, all of us who oppose this retreat, isolation and worship of ignorance, will defeat them in the end.
How exactly will we defeat this?
Voter suppression is widespread. The Democratic party remains leaderless and rudderless. SCOTUS either supports Trump's moves or issues lackluster orders.
Americans have only engaged in 2 half-day protests, as their rights and entitlements have been systematically eroded.
Even if Democrats regain the House in 2026, they have no power without the Senate and they will be blamed for the faltering economy, inflation, massive Medicaid cuts that are tined to occur on their watch.
At best, if this can be fixed, it will be a multi-generational task.
Don’t know about you, but we here in Iowa protest on a weekly basis. And “No Kings” Day is approaching on June 14. Take to the streets.
Here in my district in California we protest weekly.
hw, of course it will take generations. This fascist movement, this fascist state, didn’t come into being overnight. It took generations, starting at least as far back as the 1930s. But time starts again now. I don’t have all the answers, I may have very few of them, I may have none.
But the one thing I do know is that we, all of us in good faith who refuse to live under a dictatorship, soft or hard, must work together and not engage in partisan bickering and power struggles, which are already forming at the edges of the resistance.
And Trump may be laying the seeds of his own defeat by overreaching and causing more and more pain for the people who voted him into office in the first place.
Also, if, and I say if, we can retake the House from Trump’s minions, he will never be able to pass any more of his agenda into law again. If that pushes him further into cruelty, violence and lawlessness, good. Let him reveal who and what he truly is for all the world, and America, to see.
If Americans had taken to the streets in sustained protests, as we've seen in other declining democracies, I might agree.
Large numbers of Americans may well be outraged, but not enough to sacrifice even the tiniest amount.
Most of Trump's agenda has bypassed Congress altogether. Democratic control of the House won't change this pattern.
It seems clear that Americans will have to lose everything before there is a backlash to this Trumpian backlash.
If Trump isn’t stopped, by legal and lawful means first, Americans will lose everything, or close to. His supporters are only beginning to feel the pain he is bringing them. It is coming. It may take until September, October or November, but it is coming. Every act of resistance is a necessary step in opposition, but alone these are only delaying tactics. It will take the withdrawal of support from enough of his supporters to begin the collapse of the regime.
If you are right, then there may be no hope. I would rather act on the premise that you are wrong.
Interacting with people from other backgrounds and places, tends to make me more tolerant... I'm sure that that is not his goal. I think his (Putin's) goal is to completely isolate us on the world stage.
I would add that courage is contagious. If you need some, stand next to someone displaying it.
The problem with Paul's reasoning is that it's rooted in reality. For Rightwingers like Trump and Rubio, there's a completely different reality. In their reality, foreign students don't pay a single penny of tuition--they get comped by the schools in the name of DEI. Worse, because they're foreigners who likely hate America, those students get all the goodies that illegal immigrants get--free food, free healthcare, free housing, free phones, free clothes, free cars, and between $5,000 and $10,000 a month in walking-around money.
All of this sounds about as plausible as lizard people living in the core of the Earth. But to Rightwingers, THIS is rock-solid reality.
Rubio knows the reality. Trump doesn't care because he lives in his own reality. Both make up shit about foreign students because they know The Base are ignorant about higher education and how any of it works. They see their tax money taken out of their checks and all they think is that somebody else must be using their hard earned money. They don't want to pay any tax or want some kind of flat tax or other scheme that will take more from them in the long run. While many of us know the reality of foreign students as well as new immigrants, there are huge swaths of our nation that lives in White Isolation, knowing nothing, not caring to know, and want all the money they pay in taxes to come back to them. Heck, they don't even believe it's the rich that are stealing from them! Unfortunately I don't see any way to change their minds
MAGA doesn't care, but this is a cultural, scholarly tragedy. I was among the minority of US-born members of a social science PhD program at Penn. The overseas students were the true stars. I remember being humiliated when playing bridge with my good friends from Iran, Sweden, and Portugal. They and several others from Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, etc., have all gone off to do great things, and left with a good attitude about the US. They could not have learned what they did anyplace else. They raised me up as well. Nowhere since have I been surrounded by people as capable and creative.
Thank you Paul for writing about these things. As a EU citizen, it was my son‘s dream last year to study in the US but .. he got rejected in the last moment by a famous US college. Fortunately he got rejected, as we had to find out now woth this admin in power and there crazy pomitics. My son was in the US 2 years ago in a summer school camp and enjoyed the international atmosphere on the campus. A real pity what Trump an his admin does to this very idea of exchanging cultural aspects. From our perspective in Europe, you are so right about what you were writing about in this article!
I am hopeful that after 3 years and sth there will be a new admin reinstating this old politics with international exchanges between US and its old partners!
I am afraid I agree with Tammy Brantley. As an academic I am beginning to see the attrition. The best will leave or stay away. Once the gears have been sanded it will take a long time to clean up the mess. I hope the judiciary can move quickly to stop this disruption.
The Norwegian organization Aker Scholarship a few days ago told one Harvard student to catch the first plane out of USA because they feared visa trouble for this student.
A 25% cut to federal funding for R&D is estimated to cause an over 4% drop in GDP in the long run according to the linked American University study. Cuts to NIH and NSF look to be much larger than that. The aggressive incompetence of R's and Trump won't be making America great, it will be making America considerably poorer.
https://impa.american.edu/costs-of-cutting-scientific-research/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/22/upshot/nsf-grants-trump-cuts.html
A piffling 4% drop in GDP? Luxury!
How can that compare to gutting the entire federal safety net that keeps even the poorest participating in the economy? Or removing FEMA-assisted recoveries that bring damaged communities back into productive contribution to the economy? Or loss of basic labor from the agricultural and construction sectors? Or defunding programs that catch problems with livestock early enough to prevent a sector-crippling pandemic?
Awful!
As someone from outside the US, it is impossible to believe how far the country has fallen in such a short time and how much untold damage will occur because of this action. My 19 year old son had talked about studying in the US for a semester as part of the university exchange programs. He, of course, won’t be traveling to the US now. He is likely to study somewhere else. He will gain experience and perspectives from country he goes to and students who study here from abroad (as part of these exchanges) will gain experiences and perspectives. And we will all be better for it. Best of luck USA.
He could try Canada.
I’m sure he’d love it!
We are becoming the Taliban.
The MAGA are the Taliban.
Not only is education a great industry, it creates other industries. Elon Musk came to the US ostensibly as a graduate student. Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) did too. As did Jensen Huang CEO of NVIDIA. Do we really want to cut off the pipeline that brings us creators of trillion dollar companies?
Actually, I suspect the Trumpies regard foreign students more as spies than assets. The thinking probably goes that these students will learn how to create these great industries, go home, and build them there.
I believe that foreign students Peter Thiel and David Sacks's anger at their Stanford experience was the basis of much of the last 25-30 years of villainizing higher education. Think about how many ways those two and their friends and colleagues are currently enmeshed in the administration. Read their "Diversity Myth" and then think about Musk, Vance, Yale, South Africa, Palantir, etc.
Thanks Professor Krugman. My career was in academia, so what you say seems so obvious to me. I don't know why the rest of the country can't see it or ignores it.
It seems like all of the normal sensible people disappeared after the last election (November 2024). Many of the state legislatures that I hear about are completely devoted to culture war issues and have no time for anything related to helping the economy or jobs. They are busy making life hard for immigrants, trans people, and putting up tablets of the ten commandments.
I am afraid that this will not change anytime soon. The Democrats have become mute.
I think that DEI is a good thing but apparently no politician can make a case for it. The same with international students. International students coming here and paying full tuition is a good thing, but it seems that no politicians can make the case.
Treating everyone with respect including trans people is a good thing but everyone runs from the trans issue.