Universities are testing the president’s powers 

President Trump is attempting to use executive orders and directives to reshape America. His position gives him the authority to take such actions, with many of them representing his aspirational “wish list” for America. However, he is now facing headwinds in advancing his agenda, as the courts set legal roadblocks, often challenging the constitutionality of his orders.  

What Trump may be discovering is that, although his election to the highest office in the nation grants him authority to take such actions, actual power is something that must be given to him. 

Authority is a well-defined concept, whereas power is more fungible, perhaps even ephemeral. A good example of this is how universities have been responding to the president’s threats of withholding federal funding. Harvard’s rebuke of the president for threatening more than $2 billion of its funding demonstrates that cowing to intimidation is both unwise and unnecessary.  

Trump’s attack on Harvard is akin to awakening a sleeping giant. The university's lawsuit against the administration demonstrates how vigorously they are willing to push back. Numerous other universities have also banded together to support Harvard’s position, given that the attack on Harvard is a de facto attack on all higher education. Such a unified stance among institutions of higher education is critical to preserving their mission and roles in a free society.  

Higher education in the U.S. is a crown jewel — not only domestically but around the world. That is why over 1 million of the most talented international students are in the U.S. every year to gain the benefit of our nation’s higher education system, contributing to our services trade surplus. Many choose to remain here upon graduation, adding significant human capital talent that fuels the nation’s economy.  

Harvard’s stance against Trump’s threats shines a bright light on how the authority of the president may be indisputable, but his actual power is far more limited. That is why Trump’s call to take away Harvard’s nonprofit status will go nowhere. If he had the authority to do so, he would have already done it. Given that he lacks such authority, Trump hopes to bully them with threats that persuade them to concede power to him. Harvard is calling such threats as bluffs, infusing courage in every university that is now standing with them. 

This is not to say that universities are flawless institutions, and Harvard certainly understands this. They are, however, bastions of knowledge creation and economic development, providing opportunities that, without them, would make our nation poorer and less secure.  

The U.S. is a complex nation. No one person, not even the president, has all answers to all questions. That is why the quality of the people that any president appoints determines the benefits of the actions that president takes, the substance of his or her policies and, over time, the overall wellbeing of the nation. The choices that Trump has made for some of his Cabinet members speaks loudly in this regard. 

Harvard’s stance is part of an ongoing pushback against the administration. When Republicans in the House and Senate, who have been mostly silent in criticizing Trump’s actions, discover that riding on the president’s coattails may threaten their own power, they will begin to quietly distance themselves from him. This migration will begin as the 2026 midterm elections come into focus, given that the president’s party has lost seats in the House in nearly every midterm since 1938, with 1998 and 2002 being the only exceptions. 

Many of Trump’s ideas have merit. Government efficiency, reducing the national debt, balancing the federal budget and growing the economy are objectives that everyone can support. His implementation, however, has been woefully lacking so far. What is indisputable is that the misuse of authority ultimately weakens one’s power. It is taking a powerful institution like Harvard to teach the president this lesson.

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a professor in computer science in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He uses his expertise in risk-based analytics to address problems in public policy.