Must-Reads and Thoughts on the Repression of Student Protest
These conditions are a preview of the standards Trump hopes to impose on society as a whole.
Must-Reads
From the salaries of DOGE staffers to the ugly history of retinol, here are some of the most important articles I’ve read this week.
- Lawsuit Alleges Trump’s Guantánamo Transfers Aim to “Instill Fear” in Immigrants by Mike Ludwig. “At least three detainees have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since Trump took office, the most deaths recorded in the first quarter of the year since 2020.”
- Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries by Kate Knibbs. “Kyle Schutt, a software engineer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is listed as drawing a salary of $195,200 through GSA, where he is assigned to the Office of the Deputy Administrator. That is the maximum amount that any ‘General Schedule’ federal employee can make annually, including bonuses.
- Hospitals Are Curtailing Gender-Affirming Care Beyond Scope Set by Trump’s Order by Aviva Stahl. “Simone Chriss, an attorney with Southern Legal Counsel who has litigated against Florida’s all-ages Medicaid ban, told Truthout that it’s ‘without question’ that 18-year-olds were included in the executive order to try to expand the restrictions to all trans people down the line: ‘They’re beta testing this on a small number of people to see what kind of pushback they get.’”
- Retinol: The Skin-Care Ingredient With a Horrifying History by Kim Kelly. “Before Retin-A was approved by the FDA in 1971, it had been tested on hundreds of incarcerated people in Philadelphia as part of a long-running program led by dermatologist Albert Kligman.”
- Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Keeping Modern Slavery Compounds Online by Matt Burgess. “The eight compounds, spread around the Myawaddy region of war-torn Myanmar, likely have installed multiple Starlink devices. Photos of Tai Chang reviewed by WIRED appear to show dozens of white Starlink satellite dishes on a single rooftop, while human rights watchdogs and other experts say that Starlink use at the scam compounds has increased in the past year.”
- One Sent Tsunami Alerts. Another Flew With 'Hurricane Hunters.' Both Were Just Fired From NOAA by Evan Bush. “The mass firing — of educated, specialized workers who viewed themselves as the next generation of scientists protecting life and property — could stretch NOAA’s workforce thin and hinder work on programs designed for public safety, former agency employees and leaders said.”
- Trump Admin Bypasses Congress to Send Israel $4B as It Blocks Aid Into Gaza by Sharon Zhang. “The blockade, which began on Sunday, deprives Palestinians of basic needs like food, water and medicine, plunging the Gaza Strip back into some of the worst days of the genocide.”
- Trump Official Tells Americans to Buy Chickens to Deal With Egg Pricing Crisis by Chris Walker. “In an appearance on Fox News on Sunday to discuss rising consumer costs, Rollins laughed, saying that the egg pricing crisis had a ‘silver lining.’”
- The Tyranny of Public Opinion by Peter Shamshiri. “A wealth of research shows that voters don’t come to their policy preferences organically - they follow the cues of political figures they identify with. Meaning that generally speaking, it’s not that politicians see where voters stand and try to move toward them, it’s the other way around.”
- Trans Women Transferred to Men’s Prisons Despite Rulings Against Trump’s Order by Kaley Johnson and Sam Levin. “Lawyers fighting Trump’s directive say the court rulings prevented the transfers of 17 trans women who are plaintiffs in the cases, but others not included in the litigation are now facing placements in men’s facilities.”
- Michigan Food Banks Heading for Critical Shortages Due to Funding Uncertainty by Max Reinhart. “The estimated 1.1 million food insecure Michiganians may be more at risk if federal programs that keep the state's food pantries stocked aren't quickly reinstated, a statewide food resource network said Thursday.”
ICYMI
This week, I released a podcast episode about community defense, featuring a conversation with Siembra NC organizer Nikki Marín Baena. Nikki and I discussed how we can defend immigrant communities, how criminalization is weaponized against migrants, and what community defense organizing looks like.
Yesterday, I published an essay examining Elon Musk’s recent remarks about DOGE, revolution, bureaucracy, and empathy. In the piece I explain why Musk’s claim that empathy is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization has strategic implications for those who oppose his agenda.
Final Thoughts
On Tuesday, Donald Trump wrote a post on Truth Social threatening colleges and universities that allow student protests. “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” he wrote. While it’s unclear what Trump considers an “illegal” protest, his long history of making false allegations about unlawful activities—including baseless claims about election fraud, lies targeting scapegoated communities, and false accusations against his political opponents—suggests he is referring to any demonstration he disapproves of.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University. The administration claims this decision is a response to the school’s failure to combat antisemitism on campus. Notably, the Trump administration equates any criticism of Israel or calls for Palestinian liberation with antisemitism and is broadly hostile toward higher education, historical memory, and, well, knowledge itself.
Prior to Friday’s announcement, Columbia had already been disciplining students for activities as mundane as writing op-eds in the student newspaper about the Palestine solidarity movement. In recent weeks, a newly formed disciplinary committee at Columbia has launched dozens of cases against students targeted for social media posts, participation in protests, posting stickers, co-organizing art exhibitions, and other actions involving criticism of Israel. These apparent attempts to placate the administration have failed spectacularly. However, Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong remains committed to a strategy of submission and capitulation. In a universitywide email Friday night, Armstrong stated that Columbia is “committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns.” Armstrong also promised the university would “continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
In recent weeks, the federal government has announced three investigations into alleged antisemitism at Columbia. The Justice Department has also announced an investigation into the University of California system over alleged antisemitism stemming from last year’s Palestine solidarity protests.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is using AI to scour the social media accounts of student visa holders for “pro-Hamas” content. The program, dubbed “Catch and Revoke,” aims to deport students the U.S. government claims have shown support for Hamas. On Thursday, Fox News reported that the administration had revoked the visa of a student the State Department accused of participating in “Hamas-supporting disruptions.”
Colleges and universities have hardly been permissive of protest or dissent over the past year and a half. Students who protested last year faced brutal arrests, suspensions, and expulsions. Now, panic over Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding has raised the stakes, fueling even greater repression. Some schools are scrambling to comply with Trump’s executive orders banning “DEI” programs by canceling events, scrubbing words like “diversity” and “inclusion” from their websites, and eliminating DEI offices.
All in all, this is a terrible time to be a student with a conscience. Politically active young people on college campuses are in this administration’s crosshairs, and repression will only escalate. Conservatives have long portrayed universities as hotbeds of “wokeness,” and the right’s hostility toward academia—especially Black studies, queer studies, and gender studies—has a long history.
While young people have more reason than ever to organize in defense of their communities, values, and futures, federal pressure is fueling an environment of stifling repression.
These conditions are a preview of the standards Trump hopes to impose on society as a whole. If he succeeds in withholding federal funds and punishing states and municipalities that defy his agenda, we should expect even broader crackdowns on dissent. Trump’s threats to punish sanctuary cities are only the beginning. In the long run, he will attempt to use federal funding as a weapon to control us all.
We should also understand the weaponization of the Department of Justice in a broader political context. Today, the DOJ is targeting colleges and universities with allegations of antisemitism. Soon, unions, nonprofits, grassroots organizations, and movement educators will likely be targeted in a similar manner. Support for targeted communities may be framed as conspiratorial action, while support for civil disobedience may be framed as participation in a criminal enterprise.
For now, I have no doubt that students will continue to challenge the status quo at colleges and universities—whether through underground student newspapers, radical study groups, politicized support networks, or other forms of resistance—but public actions will become increasingly risky. I don’t have any easy answers for students facing this escalating repression. I only know that we must find ways to support them—and that what’s happening on campus won’t stay on campus. The ability of students to protest and organize is deeply important, but that’s not all that’s at stake here.
Much love,
Kelly
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