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What a Trump official’s dig at Harvard means for Hong Kong

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A cabinet secretary fretting about his daughter’s university choice might once have been considered a private family matter. In Donald Trump’s America, it has become official content.

US transport secretary Sean Duffy recently appeared with his family in a road trip series carried on the department’s YouTube page. In one episode, his daughter, Paloma, said if she were admitted to Harvard University, she would probably urge her parents to let her attend. Duffy, however, warned the university had become adept at taking “good young girls” and corrupting their minds.

Parents worry about their children’s futures. They are also free to hold firm views about Harvard, faith, politics and the value of an elite education. But this was a serving cabinet member who turned a domestic matter into content for a government-linked video series. It shows how much American politics has changed. The boundaries between public office, personal branding, family life and political messaging have blurred. A university becomes a symbol of everything one side fears about the other.

Harvard is not merely a symbol. It is a major research university whose name still carries immense global weight. Paloma is hardly alone in seeing it as an opportunity difficult to refuse. Having grown up in a conservative family and attended a conservative school, she said studying in a more liberal environment might offer balance. That ought not to be controversial. University is meant to broaden minds, exposing students to new ideas, people and ways of thinking.
Yet the Duffy exchange was never really about educational philosophy. It reflected the broader Trump administration battle with Harvard and other elite institutions, portrayed as politically uniform, hostile to religion and disconnected from ordinary America. Its disputes with universities have involved funding, admissions, campus policies and ideological bias. In this atmosphere, a young person’s college decision becomes another front in a political conflict.

For overseas students, it reinforces an impression that American higher education has become more uncertain, politicised and difficult to access.

Transport Secretary Sean Duffy was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas on January 29, 2025. In the road trip series released last month, the family toured Boston College and Harvard University, two colleges Duffy’s daughter was considering. Photo: Instagram@rcamposduffy
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