Ideological War: Trump Targets Cultural Marxism

Elite universities seen as front line of an ideological clash as Trump administration pressures reform

Tokyo, 27th October 2025 – Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article.

[Series] Trump vs. America’s Elite Universities – part 1  

Left-Wing Domination of Universities Seen as a National Threat

Reform Advocate Kirk Gunned Down

by Toshiyuki Hayakawa (早川 俊行)

See part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See part 3: How Marxism Shifted from Revolution to Culture

See part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 7: Exclusive Left-Wing DEI Ideology on Campus

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

Tensions between President Trump and USA’s elite universities are intensifying. The Trump administration is pressuring universities to reform – through measures such as suspending subsidies – because it views the current situation, in which universities have become “strongholds of the left” that instill radical ideologies in young people and spread them throughout society, as a national threat. For the Trump administration, the confrontation with universities has become the front line in its battle against “cultural Marxism” [See editor’s note below].

Far exceeding the capacity of a stadium in Arizona, more than 90,000 people flooded the 21^st September memorial ceremony held there for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, assassinated at the young age of 31. It was the largest memorial event for a private individual in U.S. history.

Why was Kirk so widely respected? Because he dared to enter universities – which he saw as nests of leftists – and awakened many students to conservative ideas, accomplishing what no one else had. Turning Point USA, which he founded at age 18, has become the largest conservative student movement in the United States, with chapters at over 800 colleges and universities.

Kirk briefly attended a community college in suburban Chicago but never graduated from university. Why, then, did someone like him choose universities as the main battleground for his political activism? In his book The Campus Battlefield, he wrote:

“Universities have become left-wing echo chambers that reinforce an anti-American, anti-freedom, pro-Marxist worldview. […] This fight isn’t just about who controls high schools and colleges. It is a life-or-death struggle over the future of America and Western civilization.”

There is no future unless universities change. Kirk was convinced of that. For him – who was shot dead during an open debate at a university in Utah – campuses were literally battlefields where he risked his life.

President Trump’s pressure on universities for reform stems from the same understanding. Last year, Trump declared, “American universities are controlled by Marxist lunatics.”

In April of this year, he singled out Harvard University by name, harshly criticizing it as a “far-left organization” and a “threat to democracy”.

The ideology known as “cultural Marxism” [See editor’s note below], which seeks to bring about revolution by destroying traditional culture and values, traces back to Italian communist Antonio Gramsci and thinkers of the German Frankfurt School. Although their ideas were viewed as heretical – an offshoot of Marxism – the institutions that absorbed, developed, and disseminated them throughout society were none other than American universities.

Senator Ted Cruz of the Republican Party criticized American universities in his book by likening them to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, believed to be the source of the coronavirus outbreak. He called them the “Woke Virus Wuhan Lab”, arguing that they have spread harmful ideas worldwide – an analogy that, in terms of the global diffusion of these ideas, may not be entirely exaggerated.

When traced back to their roots, issues that have thrown modern society into turmoil – such as mass-immigration globalism and radical gender ideology – lead to cultural Marxism [See editor’s note below], which is anti-family, anti-nation, and anti-religion. Recognizing that American universities are the ideological “headquarters” of this worldview clarifies why President Trump, despite criticism, is forcefully pursuing university reform.

Kirk’s battle to transform universities will likely be carried on by the Trump administration and the many young people who share his convictions. Breaking the left-wing dominance of universities will not be easy, but the outcome of this struggle will affect not only the United States, but also Japan, where cultural Marxism [See editor’s note below] is spreading.

See part 2: Defector: US Campus Culture Reminds Me of NKorea

See part 3: How Marxism Shifted from Revolution to Culture

See part 4: The Marxist Transformation of Higher Education

See part 5: Cancel Culture, Cultural Hegemony, Universities

See also part 6: Far-Left Activism in American Higher Education

See also part 7: Exclusive Left-Wing DEI Ideology on Campus

See also part 8: Growing Antisemitism Based on Leftist Ideology

See also When Good Intentions Serve Harmful Causes

Featured image above: Charlie Kirk at college event April 2024. Photo: Shoot for the Stars / Wikimedia Commons. License: CC ASA 4.0 Int. Cropped

[Editor’s note: The phrase “cultural Marxism” originally referred to a school of thought influenced by Marxist theory, especially the Frankfurt School (e.g., Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse). These thinkers adapted Marxist analysis of power and oppression to culture rather than just economics.

Instead of focusing only on workers vs. capitalists, they examined how culture, media, education, and ideology reproduce social hierarchies (class, race, gender, etc.).

In academia it developed into critical theory, cultural studies, and post-Marxist thought.]

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