In a wide-ranging interview on Chicago’s Morning Answer, best-selling author and political commentator Andrew Klavan discussed Donald Trump’s evolving fight against America’s elite institutions, the intellectual collapse of Ivy League universities, and the long-term vision that may define Trump’s second term in office.
Klavan joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson to react to tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s recent remarks about the irrelevance of elite universities. Thiel argued that institutions like Harvard and Yale no longer cultivate leaders but instead produce confused young people with no clear purpose—a sentiment Klavan echoed forcefully.
“COVID proved the elites don’t know what they’re doing,” Klavan said. “They took away freedoms, destroyed lives, and then gaslit the public. And after all that, no one was held accountable. The American people responded not just by supporting Trump, but by rejecting the entire elite system.”
Ivy League Collapse
Klavan argued that Ivy League schools, once gateways to national leadership, have morphed into ideological factories. He pointed to recent campus unrest and pro-Hamas activism as proof that students are being taught a morally corrosive worldview.
“These kids aren’t just misguided—they’re morally illiterate,” Klavan said. “They’ve been fed a leftist ideology that tells them victimhood equals virtue. And now they’re screaming for genocide in the name of social justice, all while thinking they’re on the right side of history.”
He criticized university administrators for their failure to rein in radicalism and protect Jewish students on campus, citing reports of no-go zones and open hostility. Klavan emphasized that while freedom of speech remains protected, moral clarity has been abandoned by university leadership.
Harvard, Federal Funding, and Public Backlash
The recent freezing of nearly $9 billion in federal funds to Harvard prompted a bizarre public relations plea from the university: the school warned that the pause might force researchers to euthanize lab animals.
“Harvard’s argument was, ‘Give us money or the rabbits get it,’” Klavan mocked. “It’s not just tone-deaf—it’s emblematic of how out of touch these institutions are. They don’t even know how to make their case to the public anymore.”
He contrasted Harvard with Hillsdale College, which refuses federal funds in order to maintain academic independence and fidelity to the Western tradition. According to Klavan, elite universities are actively eroding that tradition by teaching students to hate the very values—liberty, reason, morality—that built Western civilization.
The Trump Approach: Strategic Litigation and Long-Term Planning
Turning to Donald Trump, Klavan praised the former president for outmaneuvering elite institutions not just politically but strategically. He cited Trump’s willingness to go to court—knowing full well he wouldn’t win every case—as part of a broader effort to redefine the power dynamic in Washington and beyond.
“Trump doesn’t have to win every legal battle,” Klavan said. “He just has to force the fight and reset the conversation. He’s thinking three moves ahead, and the media still doesn’t get it.”
He described Trump’s long-term vision as deeply rooted in restoring national sovereignty, rebuilding American manufacturing, and shifting U.S. posture toward China from dependency to competition. He credited Trump’s four years out of office as a period of reflection and recalibration, noting that the former president is now better equipped to confront entrenched power on both the right and left.
The Cultural Collapse of the Left
Klavan didn’t hold back in his critique of progressive politics more broadly, saying the left has lost its moral compass. He connected the Democratic Party’s recent attempts to defend MS-13 gang members and pro-Hamas activists to a deeper ideological rot.
“They’ve abandoned virtue in favor of narrative,” Klavan said. “It’s all about victim hierarchies and grievance politics. They believe the worse your behavior, the more you deserve protection. It’s madness.”
On the legacy of Pope Francis, Klavan was equally unsparing. Citing a Wall Street Journal editorial, he summed it up: “He championed the poor while supporting policies that kept them poor.” Klavan called liberation theology and similar leftist ideologies “a moral and economic disaster.”
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, Klavan expressed concern that major policy priorities like tax reform and budget restructuring remain incomplete. He emphasized that Congress must act to codify Trump’s economic agenda to ensure its permanence beyond executive orders.
“We can’t rely on EOs,” he warned. “The laws have to be passed. Trump has the right vision, but Congress needs to get serious.”
With his new book The Kingdom of Cain set for release on May 6, Klavan continues to explore the spiritual and philosophical challenges facing Western civilization. But on the political front, he remains confident in the current trajectory.
“Trump exposed them. The elites have been condemned. They just don’t know it yet.”
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Andrew Klavan’s The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness is available for pre-order now. His writings can be found at The New Jerusalem Substack.