In 2025, the proof is glaring. Public confidence in colleges has crashed to 36%, down from 57% in 2015. The college-for-all dream, though well-intentioned, has inflated costs, buried millions in debt, and watered down education. Built on sand, its reputation is collapsing before us.

But you wouldn’t know any of this from many media accounts, according to which, as in this breathless headline, “Trump’s Demands of Harvard Escalate His War on Higher Ed.” (RELATED: HART: Elite Colleges Slowly Commit Suicide)

His war on higher ed? Not quite.

In fact, when it comes to higher-education reform, President Donald Trump is as much mirror as mover. Over the past two decades, it has been not simply a single president but the American people who have grown increasingly dissatisfied with higher education. And for good reason.

For some time, college was considered America’s golden key. In 2013, Gallup reported that 70% of Americans saw college as essential, up from 36% in 1978. College graduates earned $53,600, versus $33,600 for high school graduates, and degree holders extolled college as a smart bet.

However, since the ‘80s, tuition has doubled, outpacing inflation, and by 2015, the system was........

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