DEGREES OF HOSTILITY

How far will the Administration's assault on colleges and universities go?

- BY EMMA GREEN

It's easy to forget how bleak January, 2021, felt for conservatives in Washington. Donald Trump had lost the election. The January 6th Capitol riot was seen as an irredeemable scandal. The pandemic was raging, and the country was still reeling from the George Floyd protests. "Republicans had been run out of town," one Trump Administration official told me. "I thought, I'll go to Texas, where I might still be able to get a job with a scarlet 'T' on me. It's like, this city, and the federal government—it's over."

Those who stayed in D.C. hunkered down in think tanks, preparing for a long winter in the opposition. Some were convinced that Trump's first term had been a missed opportunity. The Administration had been slow to hire, and many staffers were unfamiliar with the intricacies of bureaucratic combat. As Trump loyalists planned their return to power, they studied up. Jim Blew, an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Education during Trump's first term, recalled fielding dozens of calls about arcane processes like negotiated rule-making. "We all realized it really helps to understand these things," Blew said.