On this episode of Start Making Sense, Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan, talks about refusing to submit to the president, and Adam Hochschild explains Woodrow Wilson’s attacks on his critics.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a proclamation in the Oval Office at the White House on April 17, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Win McNamee / Getty Images)
JD Vance said it most clearly: For the Trump people, “The universities are the enemy.” That’s why Trump is cutting billions of federal funding and making impossible demands that threaten dozens of universities. But universities have begun to resist. Michael Roth comments—he’s the president of Wesleyan, and was the first university president to speak out against Trump’s attacks.
Also on this episode: Trump is not the worst president when it comes to constitutional rights and civil liberties; Woodrow Wilson was worse. Adam Hochschild explains why—starting with his jailing thousands of people whose only crime was speaking out against the president. Adam’s most recent book is American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.
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Trump’s State of the Union speech was predictable, but nevertheless revealing of his state of mind. John Nichols has our analysis.
Also: In 1949 when Jackie Robinson appeared before HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, to discredit Paul Robeson. Howard Bryant talks about why that happened, and what happened afterwards – to each of them. His new book is “Kings and Pawns.”
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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.