I Take Back Every Snarky Thing I Ever Said About Harvard

Because Sometimes the Elites Get It Right

For most of my life, Harvard was a four-syllable eye-roll.
I’ve mocked it with Midwestern glee: the smug sweaters, the yacht names, the way people drop “Harvard” into a conversation like it’s a magical incantation for credibility.

I grew up on the south side of Milwaukee. We didn’t need Ivy League credentials to earn our way—we needed grit, creativity, and a tolerance for cheese curds and blunt honesty. I earned my BFA in interior architecture at the Layton School of Art and Design, a 75-year institution that was once the crown jewel of Milwaukee’s fine arts scene. I took all my academics at Northwestern. And with those tools, I built a life in commercial real estate and filmmaking, outmaneuvering plenty of Ivy-toting MBAs along the way.

So yeah, Harvard University has been an easy—and frequent—target. (Like when Kushner’s dad donated $2.5 million.)

Until now.
Because now… I take it all back.

Harvard just told Donald J. Trump to take his authoritarian clown car and drive it straight off campus.

When Trump tried to pressure Harvard into letting him fire tenured professors—basically asking them to hand him the keys to the entire institution—Harvard stood tall. He wanted control over hiring and firing, demanded deference, and likely imagined himself as the Dean of Gaslighting and Advanced Grievance Studies.

And Harvard’s answer?

“No. This isn’t Trump University. We’re not for sale.”

And just like that, I felt something I never thought I’d feel toward Harvard: respect.

But it wasn’t just a political thrill. It hit personal.

Because I’ve seen what happens when institutions cave to authoritarian bullies.

At Layton, back in the day, the president of the school, Edmund D. Lewandowski, tried to bust a union, hiring a staff of scabs. He fired a beloved teacher for organizing. The courts forced him to rehire the entire faculty—twice the payroll, zero remorse. And just like that, the pride of Milwaukee’s art world was financially kneecapped. Layton collapsed under the weight of that bad decision. A union-busting tantrum bankrupted my college.

Sound familiar? Because it should.

That same anti-worker, anti-truth, anti-human instinct is alive and well today in the union-busting nonsense we’re seeing from Elon Musk, who thinks he can fire his way to godhood and meme his way out of legal consequences. Like Trump, Musk has weaponized ego at the expense of people’s lives, livelihoods, and institutions. And like Layton, many of his moves are coming back to bite him in court.

So yeah, when Harvard stood up and said “No,” it wasn’t just bold—it was redemptive.
It was the kind of backbone that Layton didn’t get to show in time.
And the kind that too few institutions are showing now.

Harvard, I’m clapping. And not ironically.

You protected your faculty.
You protected your students.
You protected the idea of a university: a place where the truth can still exist, even when powerful men find it inconvenient.

And best of all?