One Punch 6 Years Ago Resonates Politically

Much has been written about the Trump administration's fight with Harvard and other universities, but the Wall Street Journal traces the broad outlines of the current fight to a single punch in 2019:

• That year, Hayden Williams got punched in the face after he set up a table at UC Berkeley to recruit students for the conservative group Turning Point USA. Video of the confrontation and Williams' subsequent appearance on Fox News is here.

• President Trump spoke with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk after the incident, and one or the other floated the idea of withholding public funds from universities that are deemed to have violated free-speech rights, per the Journal. Trump, with Williams by his side, announced an executive order to that effect two weeks later. It was subsequently stalled by opponents, who included congressional Republicans.
• Williams also wrote about his punch in a USA Today essay at the time, making the case that "leftists are targeting conservative students across the country for their political beliefs."

Read the full Journal story, which traces how the fight escalated in a big way in December 2023 thanks to a congressional hearing in which top campus presidents were grilled by GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.