John Oliver has warned that the Trump administration’s assault on US higher education could have catastrophic implications for British universities. On his show Last Week Tonight, Oliver examined how Donald Trump is using the pretext of fighting antisemitism to cut billions of dollars in federal funding for scientific research, a move he says is designed to bend universities to his will.
Oliver traced the conservative distrust of academia back to Richard Nixon, who in 1972 declared “the professors are the enemy”. He noted that Republicans have long criticised universities for wasteful spending and liberal bias, and have now seized on student protests over Gaza as a justification for punitive action. “Multiple things can be true,” Oliver said, acknowledging both genuine antisemitism and overblown claims, but added that “none of that nuance has been present in the White House’s response, which has been to suggest the wholesale destruction of certain universities.”
The administration’s “Task Force to Combat Antisemitism”, backed by Stephen Miller, has targeted schools with large protest movements, cancelling grants and freezing funds. Columbia University, for example, saw $700m in National Institutes of Health funding frozen after it initially capitulated to demands. “There’s no guarantee that capitulation will be enough,” Oliver warned, noting that the administration continues to escalate its demands.
Oliver dismissed the idea that these actions are genuinely about protecting Jewish students, pointing to Trump’s own history of antisemitic associations, including dining with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and reportedly keeping a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bed. “Hearing that Trump is suddenly waging war against antisemites is like hearing that Billy Joel is waging war against dads from Long Island,” he joked.
For UK universities, which rely heavily on public funding and research grants, the precedent is alarming. If similar political pressures emerge in Britain, institutions could face funding cuts under the guise of combating campus antisemitism, threatening their autonomy and research output. Oliver’s analysis serves as a stark warning that once governments target universities for political conformity, no amount of compliance may satisfy them.
