Yale professor compares Trump to Nazis, flees to Canada
A Canada-bound Yale University professor is claiming that President Donald Trump is turning America into a fascist regime.
Jason Stanley, who studies fascism, has cited the Trump administration’s higher education policies as the reason for his departure from Yale.
A Yale University professor known for writing about fascism is leaving the United States to teach in Canada—citing fears that the Trump administration is turning the country into a “fascist dictatorship.”
Jason Stanley—a philosophy professor at Yale and author of How Fascism Works—will join the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy this fall.
In a recent interview with The Daily Nous, Stanley said his departure was motivated “entirely because of the political climate in the United States,” adding that he did not want to raise his children in a country that is supposedly transforming into a fascist dictatorship.
Stanley revealed he was strongly influenced by Columbia University’s decision to accept policy changes following the loss of $400 million in federal funding.
[Columbia University agrees to Trump admin’s pro-safety demands as it faces $400M+ funding loss]
Stanley told The Guardian that the move reflects a broader trend of universities choosing to “work behind the scenes” rather than openly resisting federal pressure.
He also asserted that this attitude, trying not to be a “targeted” school, was a losing strategy and left him concerned by the lack of solidarity from other institutions.
In a March 27 speech at the Unitarian Society of New Haven (USNH), the professor compared federal higher education policy under President Trump to Gleichschaltung, a Nazi strategy to purge government institutions of ideological opponents, which he claimed sealed his choice.
The Trump administration recently froze dozens of federal grants to Princeton University and announced a $9 billion grant review of Harvard University following investigations into growing anti-Semitic occurrences and concerns on Ivy League and higher education campuses across the country.
[RELATED: Trump admin reviews $9B in Harvard federal funding over anti-Semitism concerns]
Stanley also criticized the Trump administration’s anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, stating that Critical Race Theory programs are scapegoats.
He clarified that these educational efforts are being “targeted” to obscure the effects of “patriarchy and racism” in democratic studies.
Yet, Stanley is not the only Yale professor departing the United States.
Professor Doron Taussig and Professor Andrew Gamson, both media, communications, and social justice instructors, have also announced plans to leave Yale for institutions in Canada and Europe due to President Trump’s executive orders combating rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Campus Reform reached out to Jason Stanley, Doron Taussig, Andrew Gamson and Yale University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
