Colleges and universities have become factories for political indoctrination.
They're kicking and screaming about Trump's reforms – filing lawsuits, staging protests, and lecturing everyone about "academic freedom."
But woke colleges waved the white flag of surrender after Trump handed them this big defeat.
Schools Are Shutting Down Gender Studies Programs Across the Country
It started with a video.
A Texas A&M student confronted a professor over gender identity content in the classroom, the clip went viral, and the university launched a review of 5,400 course syllabi.
When the dust settled, Texas A&M eliminated its entire women's and gender studies program – and canceled six additional courses with names like "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Youth Development."
They weren't alone.
Wichita State, the University of Iowa, UC Santa Cruz – all gone.
Towson University in Maryland couldn't even argue politics – they just counted the students: eleven signed up last fall, down from 38 a few years ago.
Eleven.
At some point you stop calling it a crackdown and start calling it a funeral.
The White House Called It "Radical DEI" – And They Were Right
The Trump administration didn't blink.
Education Department officials threatened to pull federal funding from schools offering race-based and gender ideology courses, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction Democrat activists had used to shield these programs from accountability.
The White House was direct: "The Trump Administration is committed to restoring financial responsibility and eliminating radical DEI policies at America's higher education institutions."
White House spokeswomanLiz Huston said plainly what the rest of the media won't.
This Is What Your Tuition Money Actually Bought
What job does a gender studies degree prepare you for?
Its biggest employer of graduates is elementary and secondary schools – which means your kid's gender studies professor is training the next generation of gender studies professors.
And the second biggest category of employers? Nobody seems to know – the census tracks it as "uninformed."
The Independent Women's Forum didn't mince words: the degree has "neither an economic nor an intellectual value proposition."
These programs stopped being about women decades ago – they became assembly lines for grievance.
Four years of being told America failed them, biology is a lie, and the world owes them a living.
Then they graduate, can't find a job that requires a degree in oppression studies, and suddenly they're the loudest voices demanding the government cancel their student loans.
That's not a coincidence.
Gender studies is the farm system for the socialist wing of the Democrat Party – churning out underemployed, aggrieved graduates who are convinced the system is rigged, capitalism is evil, and Bernie Sanders had the right idea all along.
They don't think they failed.
They think America failed them.
And Socialist Democrats have been more than happy to tell them they're right – as long as they keep showing up to vote.
Cornell law professor William Jacobson said it out loud: "Gender studies is a field whose time has come and gone."
He's right. And the students figured it out before the professors did.
The Left Is Screaming – And It Isn't Stopping Anything
Faculty senates are writing strongly worded letters.
Professors are calling it a "chilling effect."
The National Women's Studies Association put out a statement – and if you want to understand why nobody's signing up for gender studies, read it carefully.
"We may be understandably saddened, frightened, and enraged," they wrote.
Saddened. Frightened. Enraged.
Eleven students.
Trump's executive orders are standing, the Fourth Circuit backed him up last week, and the Education Department means business for the first time in decades.
The programs are closing – not because Trump forced them to, but because they can't justify their existence once someone makes them try.
Turns out when you stop forcing students to pay for political indoctrination, they stop showing up for it.
Sources:
- Sean Salai, "Trump DEI Purge Threatens Women's and Gender Studies Programs," Washington Times, February 17, 2026.
- Jessica Priest, "Texas A&M Eliminates Women's and Gender Studies Program," Texas Tribune, January 30, 2026.
- "Trump Secures Legal Victory on Anti-DEI Directives," Higher Ed Dive, February 10, 2026.
- "U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate DEI," U.S. Department of Education press release.
- "After 50 Years, Several Women's Studies Programs on Chopping Block," The College Fix, January 15, 2025.
- "A Look at DEI Eliminations at Colleges Across the US," Higher Ed Dive, December 16, 2024.
- Liz Huston, White House spokeswoman statement, February 2026.
