Harvard can remain relevant longer than we can remain solvent, but long-term they’re completely screwed. It’s not just Trump; the Right as a whole is sick of academia acting as an organ of the Left, sick of asking nicely for them to stop, and Republican politicians will increasingly see that there’s no downside to using all the powers at their disposal against academia. What can Harvard do? Stop being racist and stop discriminating against Conservatives? That’s anathema to them. Make a big show of how hard they are #resisting Trump? That cements them further as the enemy of half the country, while only gaining tiny margins on the left. That’s deadly for an institution that wants to be seen as a leading source of legitimacy for the ruling class of the whole country. And it’s no good for an industry that is heavily funded by a government which will be run by their enemies half the time.

This feels like one of those collapses that will happen very slowly and then all at once. Don’t trust in that big endowment either; government surely has a thousand ways to take care of that.