Bad move: Trump's removal of Harvard's tax exemption will backfire

President Donald Trump's rightwing crusade against the Ivy Leagues and academia in general is long overdue. For decades, the right refrained from seriously going after the universities benefitting from billions in taxpayer largesse, out of fear of being yelled at or a vain hope that reform would come from within.

Now that both illusions have been shed, the decision to hit universities in their pocketbook, especially regarding federal funds of all kinds, for open and blatant violations of civil rights law, is just desserts.

But going after a university's tax exemption is a different story. It's not that Harvard isn't guilty under the same precedent as Bob Jones University was in the 1970s. It's that this weapon will unquestionably be used, in earnest, against any and all religious-based or even just regular organizations, institutions, schools, and universities that do not toe the woke line on inclusiveness.

Yes, it's true that the left wanted to do this before and would likely try to do it regardless. But revoking the exemption from Harvard will turbo-charge that instinct, combining the elites' personal animus towards traditional religion with a visceral desire for survival and revenge for the damage and insult.

The war against higher education, which has been captured in too many places by radicals, is just. But the tactics need to be carefully chosen, and this was not.

Please, President Trump, reconsider.