Trump for president … of Harvard

As former President Donald Trump accelerates toward the 2024 Republican nomination, he might want to contemplate conquering another arena as well — academia.

More specifically, becoming the president of Harvard University.

While most of the left-of-center professors, administrators and students might walk off the fabled campus en masse, that might be the best thing to happen to Harvard in decades. At least for those who believe the reputation of the school, as well as the quality of its professors and students, is being irreversibly sucked down by the “woke” vortex swirling about its ivy-covered buildings. 

If ever an institution needed the skills of a “turnaround expert,” it is Harvard. And no one has been articulating that desperate need more than Harvard alum and billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

After the savage Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ackman has been on a one-man quest to not only call out the vile antisemitism permeating the Harvard campus, but have its president — Claudine Gay — fired. While the Harvard board of trustees announced they have no intention of getting rid of Gay, Ackman remains undaunted. 

If Ackman is looking for a wingman to bolster his attacks on Harvard, he might want to consider reaching out to Trump. Not surprisingly, the former president has long had an opinion on the fraud, waste, abuse and bias tied to these once prestigious institutions of higher learning. 

Back during the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton proposed making public college free for middle-class families. Trump proceeded to shred that taxpayer-punishing giveaway. “Universities get massive tax breaks for massive endowments,” Trump rightly pointed out. “These huge multi-billion-dollar endowments are tax free. But too many of these universities don’t use the money to help with tuition and student debt. Instead, these universities use the money to pay their administrators or put donors’ names on buildings or just store the money, keep it, and invest it. In fact, many universities spend more on private equity managers than on tuition programs.”

Right there, with the “private equity managers” mention, Trump and Ackman have a connection. So why not join together and use their superpowers for good? 

Once upon a time, Ackman had a very high opinion of Trump. After Trump won the election in November of 2016, Ackman said at the Dealbook summit, “I was extremely bullish on Trump, believe it or not. The U.S. is the greatest business in the world. It’s been undermanaged for a very long period of time. We now have a businessman as president.”

Ackman continued to heap on the praise: “He’s going to launch an infrastructure program. He’s going to take corporate taxes down to sensible levels. He’s going to get things done.”

To be sure, Ackman has soured on Trump over the last number of years. But how many people can Ackman target for removal at any one time? As of now, Claudine Gay tops Ackman’s list. As Trump would also like to see the current Harvard president go, maybe Ackman can adopt the “enemy of my enemy” strategy.

If Ackman was thrilled to have a businessman as president of the United States, surely he would be ecstatic to have said businessman as president of Harvard. And, as a bonus, Trump is an Ivy League graduate. Back in 1968 — when grades, SAT scores and qualifications mattered a great deal more than they do now on these campuses — Trump graduated from Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s school of business.

Once Trump gets into the general election against Biden — or whomever the Democrats find at the last minute to replace him — the former president will surely turn to the cameras and ask Americans if they were better off four years ago than they are now.

Tens of millions of voters will answer in the affirmative as they line up for Trump.

That question travels very well. Trump could just as easily ask all past alumni of Harvard — as well as almost all colleges and universities — if their school was better years ago before falling under the self-destructive spells of “wokeism” and identity politics.

I suspect that tens of thousands of Harvard alumni, horrified to see university leadership and professors pushing ideology and partisanship before education and tolerance of other voices, would also loudly answer in the affirmative.

If Ackman does succeed in his quest to oust Gay from Harvard before January 2025, it sure would be entertaining if he and other powerful Harvard alumni were able to appoint Trump president of the university. Even for just a few months.

It would be the political and academic collision of matter vs. antimatter and might set off the largest flash in the history of higher education. 

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.