Podcast: Is Congress as dysfunctional as it seems?

President Donald Trump has escalated his standoff with Harvard University, seeking yet another path to prevent international students from entering the school, just days after a judge blocked an earlier attempt to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll them. Trump has issued a sweeping travel ban targeting nationals from 19 countries, aimed explicitly at restricting their access to Harvard. “Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the proclamation stated, launching a bureaucratic assault that now stretches across embassies, immigration offices, and courtrooms.

In its nearly 400-year history, Harvard University has weathered religious dogmatism, civil war, global conflict, and cultural revolutions. But the latest test confronting America’s most venerated academic institution does not come from theological censure or geopolitical turbulence - it stems from the Oval Office itself. Trump has cast Harvard as public enemy number one in his populist theatre. But this is more than a political vendetta - it’s a stress test of American democracy.