Publicly defiant, elite universities privately line up to hire lobbyists close to Trump

Five elite universities that have publicly criticized President Donald Trump are paying top-tier MAGA-friendly lobbyists to butter up the White House privately, federal lobbying disclosures show.

​Johns Hopkins University, ​Cornell University, ​Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University have all entered into lobbying contracts with Ballard Partners or Miller Strategies, two firms with close links to the Trump administration, since Election Day. While Ballard and Miller lobbyists work backrooms on behalf of their clients, those universities have engaged in public acts of defiance against Trump, launching lawsuits, signing critical letters, and refusing to comply with his demands for reform.

The presidents of four of the universities that have recently hired Trump-connected lobbyists — Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, and the University of Michigan — are signatories of an April letter that condemned as an example of “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” the president’s strategy of withholding federal funds to gain leverage over universities.