Hardening soft power

Mr Trump is undermining the US

- 

Harvard University, America's oldest and wealthiest university, has offered the Donald Trump administration a salutary lesson in constitutional safeguards by invoking its First Amendment rights in rejecting sweeping demands to align its practices to a specific federal agenda.

As part of a larger programme linked to federal funding in universities, a multidepartment task-force pressured the university to end its initiatives on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), restrict the say of student and faculty members in university affairs, and institute systematic screening of student organisations.

The university has responded by unequivocally refusing to comply, stating that the administration's demands contravened guarantees of fundamental rights under the First Amendment, which had been recognised by the Supreme Court.

For its stance, the administration has frozen $2.2 billion in federal grants, with the potential to freeze a further $7 billion.