Back in 2021, far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, who supports abolishing American democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship, went on a podcast to discuss how a hypothetical “American Caesar” might successfully carry out a power grab if elected president.

His interlocutor, then-former (and now, current) Trump official Michael Anton, argued that any such effort would fail because “the real power centers” in the US — the elite media and academic institutions exemplified by “Harvard and the New York Times” — would fight back.

“That’s right,” Yarvin agreed. “That’s why, basically, you can’t continue to have a Harvard or a New York Times past the start of April.”

It’s now April — and Harvard is suddenly facing an unprecedented assault from the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has already revoked $2.2 billion in federal research funding for the university. He and his aides have suggested they may use more weapons of state power soon — revoking Harvard’s nonprofit status through the IRS, taking away its certification to host international students, and scrutinizing its disclosures of foreign donations.

The assault on Harvard is part of a broader Trumpian assault on elite universities, which is itself part of a yet broader federal assault on progressive institutions and groups deemed enemies of the president (from Big Law firms to liberal nonprofits to mainstream media outlets).

The attacks have various pretexts, but they fit a larger strategy that right-wing activists advocate. They believe that the best way of strengthening the right’s cultural power is to force liberal and left-leaning institutions to bend the knee — or be destroyed. And though destroying Harvard will be a tall order, tactics like these likely will have massive long-term consequences, forever transforming the relationship between the federal government and academia.

Harvard became Trump’s top target because it stood up to him in a high-profile way, announcing last Monday it would not give in to his demands. The school has won praise from Trump critics for resisting where

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