Donald Trump is finding fewer and fewer supplicants for his series of extortion attempts, with Harvard University becoming the latest institution to reject the administration's demands. As with most things Harvard-related, the school's primacy is overstated: Michigan State University, New York public schools and other education institutions have already pushed back against White House overreach. The schools are not alone: From law firms to corner offices, some of America's most prestigious institutions are finding their spines — or at least their voices — in the face of Trump's power grabs.
If anything, though, these institutions are trailing popular sentiment. Many observers treated Trump's victory in November as a profound change in American politics. At the most extreme, the president and his allies tried to claim that his victory — the third-narrowest since World War II — represented a sweeping "mandate." Even some of his critics argued his second term brought with it a "vibe shift."
But the "vibe shift" was always a mirage. And even before Trump's 100th day in office, the mirage is already disappearing.
