‘This is what authoritarianism looks like’: Education Secretary mimics Soviet-era playbook, says only pro-Trump research will get funding

The Trump administration has it all out on universities throughout the country. People have understandably been raising questions about what exactly they want from these institutions to escape their wave of defunding — and the answer of being “in sync with Trump” was simply too domineering for some observers to believe.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon was articulating the policy of Trump’s administration to CNBC in regards to her docket. McMahon, who has worked with Vince McMahon in the wrestling industry for years, had the arduous task of explaining why Trump was defunding research in some great universities. According to her, all they have to do is follow the law, clamp down on anti-Semitism, and be cognizant of what the administration is trying to accomplish.

The first two asks were lost in the fray because all people on X could focus on is the idea that it’s expected of them to curry favor with the administration of the day. Harvard University in particular was mentioned, and that in itself was cause for enough alarm. There have been rumors that Trump’s gripes with Harvard perhaps might be more personal, but even if they aren’t — a new precedent is trying to be set with this new administration that education must be limited to their ideas specifically.

Harvard University is reportedly fighting back against Trump’s overbearing oversight. But even as this goes on, the administration has started yet another policy where they’re scrutinizing foreign students, especially from China. All of these factors coupled together have of course caused people to decry that this might be the end of academic freedom in the United States. There’s already a historical context to be drawn in regards to which kinds of government actually do this kind of thing.

An X account flatly accused the administration of overstepping their mandate, stating bluntly, “This is what authoritarianism looks like.” And while it does sound harsh at first, there’s precedence to support that claim. During the height of the Soviet Union, Stalin famously clamped down on math and statistics because they were exposing that the economy of their country wasn’t going as perfectly as he claimed.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon: Universities should continue to be able to do research as long as they're abiding by the laws and in sync with what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish.

This is what authoritarianism looks like.
pic.twitter.com/0otZtIAjKs

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 28, 2025

Stalin believed that instead of dealing with the truth — he could just shut down the research entirely. Statisticians like Andrey Kolmogorov and Eugen Slutsky instead were the ones who bore the brunt of the blame. Maybe Trump has been flying a little too close to the sun in regards to his flirtation with President Putin and that’s where he’s getting these ideas.

In the comments of the post itself, there were other people pointing fingers at other authoritarian figures from the past who went to war with science and research. The fact is, you can go as far back as you want, even back to the time of Galileo — leadership that demands compliance from nature usually leads to regression.

Worst part is that Hitler tried it and failed horribly but Germany lived with the consequences unhappily ever after.

How do you like to go from the bastion of democracy and innovation and knowledge to controlled thoughts by authoritarian propaganda?

— Evaristus Odinikaeze (@odinikaeze) May 28, 2025

Research is one of the core responsibilities of universities in a society. The researches bring about discoveries, development, and perhaps most importantly the truth. And for the Trump administration, that last point seems to be something they are in an endless battle with.