Trump is a gangster. Now he’s committing extortion against American universities.

President Donald Trump’s war on academia continued this week with letters pressuring the leaders of top universities across the United States to sign his “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” for priority access to federal funding and other “positive benefits.”

The New York Times reported that “letters were sent on Wednesday to the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia.”

The letters “urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump’s political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds” were signed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon and two key White House officials, according to the Times.

The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is basically a demand to dictate who is allowed to be employed by and attend our universities — it’s an anti-DEI set of demands that claims to enhance diversity while effectively abolishing it. It demands that the university “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” so it’s trying to artificially pump up bogus conservatism, at a time when conservatism has dived off the cliff into outright lunacy.

My university hasn’t been victimized by the extortionist, yet. I would hope that they would refuse to accept the compact, if they were sent this wicked letter. Most universities are fighting back and refusing to sign on.

Except Texas.

Leaders of the Texas system were “honored” that the Austin campus was chosen to be a part of the compact and its “potential funding advantages,” according to a statement from Kevin Eltife, chair of the Board of Regents. “Today we welcome the new opportunity presented to us and we look forward to working with the Trump Administration on it,” Eltife said.

What a cowardly, chicken-shit place Texas must be.