Quick Take
Cabrillo College President Matt Wetstein explains his early retirement decision amid what he describes as an escalating assault on higher education, immigrants and democratic norms under Trump’s second term. Citing abrupt federal grant cancellations, rising fear in immigrant communities and ideological pressure on DEI programs, Wetstein argues that the administration is operating more like a criminal enterprise than a democratic government. Drawing parallels to Watergate, he warns of a new national nightmare — unless civic and institutional leaders push back.
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Two recent events have confirmed my reason to retire early as president of Cabrillo College, and they both emanate from the destabilizing forces of the Trump presidency.
My anxiety started with the assault on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the federal level two months ago, and the ever-present concern that raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will certainly impact students and their families, not to mention employees. This manifested last week, when a spouse of a Cabrillo employee was detained just blocks from school during a supposed traffic stop and asked by agents with no insignia to document their status as a citizen.
We reported the incident to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. I am still uncertain if the detention was bogus or real.
The chilling effect that has on people in our community cannot be overstated.
Then I learned that a National Science Foundation grant funding peer tutors in STEM classes at Cabrillo was being canceled “effective immediately” – in the 32nd month of a 36-month grant. The callousness of that decision, just weeks before final exams, confirms my suspicion: We now have a presidency that represents a criminal enterprise.
The foundational approach of Trump 2.0 is to target perceived enemies, cancel funding where policy choices of the prior Congress and president do not align with MAGA values and defy the rulings of federal courts.
And so, we are left to navigate a new national nightmare.
Why would I say that our current president is leading a criminal enterprise? Because, as former U.S. senator Sam Ervin once said, “I can read and speak the English language – it’s my mother tongue.”
In short … I know it when I see it.
Just consider the textbook definition of extortion, which consists “in any public officer unlawfully taking, by color of his office, from any person any money or thing of value that is not due to him.” Gliding past all the questionable executive orders and rapid deportations, the first 100 days of the Trump administration has seen a cavalcade of actions designed to extract things of value from various political entities or actors that are in no way, shape or form due to the U.S. – much less the Trump presidency.
A few specific examples help document the ongoing racket. Law firms that have represented perceived political enemies get leveraged to provide millions in pro bono services for specific causes or clients under threat of losing access to federal buildings and courthouses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gets pummeled into negotiating for peace with the clear aggressor, Vladimir Putin, and to seal the deal, gets told, “It would be nice to have access to those nice rare earth minerals and resources you have at your disposal.”
University leaders get called to the carpet for DEI programs or for failing to adequately punish pro-Palestinian protesters, with failure to submit to new regulations resulting in cancellation of congressionally approved grants and contracts.
The impact of this pressure on higher education institutions has been one of pervasive fear, anxiety, uncertainty and, only recently, defiance.
At Cabrillo, federal grant managers are concerned their funding will be cut off at any moment. As I indicated earlier, just days ago, we lost $13,000 in annual funding from a collaborative National Science Foundation grant that was terminated four months before its completion. Ironically, the new grant competition for the same program just got launched by the NSF.
You cannot make this stuff up.
The federal attack on higher education is undermining enrollment and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rates. Immigrants and children of immigrants have well-placed fears about what will happen to their data and information when they fill out applications for federal financial aid. During Trump 1.0, enrollment by Hispanic students declined in the California Community College system by 29,000 in the first four months. Given the incendiary rhetoric about immigrants, mass deportations and DOGE efforts to secure data across multiple agencies, I would not be surprised to see a larger decline this spring.
Then there are the international students who fear that their visas will be revoked at any moment. I never thought I would be asking our international student counselor to monitor the visa records system on a daily basis, but here we are in the world of Trump 2.0. Colleges across the country are reporting a significant downturn in international applicants this year.
So the Trump administration is leading the best and the brightest of the world to study in Europe and Canada rather than here.
Thus, in my world as a college president, it has come to something like this: I worry about the email that arrives indicating I must “sign this form rejecting DEI programs as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or we’ll take away your federal grants and your students’ financial aid.”
One can just imagine the Hollywood script version of this. Cut to a lookalike of James Gandolfini saying to me (played by George Clooney): “That’s a nice college you have there – it’d be a shame if something bad happened to it …”
The scene ends with Clooney looking off toward his bookcase, where “Moneyball” sits next to Plato’s “Republic.”
I don’t mean to make light of this … but sometimes you have to laugh while you are crying.
Our country has endured such a nightmare in the past. Just over 50 years ago, the U.S. ended a “long national nightmare” with the resignation of Richard Nixon as president. The Watergate affair actually featured a series of conspiracies and criminal acts designed to undermine perceived enemies of the Nixon administration. The efforts included dirty tricks against political opponents, politically inspired IRS audits, thefts, break-ins to seize medical records, campaign finance violations, illegal campaign contributions and the attempted theft of records from the Democratic National Committee.
As Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein unraveled the various criminal schemes, they came to realize, at some point, that the president would be impeached. Rather than suffer that formal indignity, and in the face of pressure from Senate Republicans, Nixon resigned.
We lived to awaken from the dream because good Republican leaders came to their senses and understood that the presidency and the political system are more important than one person. If the Republican leadership does not wake up soon, we will be left to the courage and values of college presidents, independent journalists and law firm leaders.
While I like my odds with most journalists, lawyers and college presidents I know, they are going to need the support of the people and the courts to drag us toward daylight.
So, in my Hollywood version of this story, “All the President’s Men” gets revitalized and we pull through as a functioning democracy. If not, we are in for a long, slumbering political nightmare.
Matt Wetstein is a recovering political science professor and author/co-author of academic studies of comparative judicial behavior. He currently serves as the president of Cabrillo College. His comments here are not to be attributed to the college, especially those relating to George Clooney portraying him in a movie.