David Pakman

Stanley was a professor at Yale University, tenured, prestigious.

kind of as protected as it gets in American academia.

And even he decided it wasn't safe or honest to stay.

And so he has moved his family to Canada and is now teaching at the University of Toronto.

Why?

Because in his words, the Trump administration has carried out a coup.

Not a metaphor, not hyperbole, a coup.

Stanley says the Trump regime believes it has enough control over the levers of power that it doesn't need public support anymore.

That is a chilling sentence.

And according to Stanley, universities are being targeted first, funding threats and political pressure demands for compliance.

And he believed that if he stayed at Yale, the institution would feel pressure to tone him down.

not because Yale necessarily agrees with Trump.

They probably don't, but because Yale wants to survive.

And Stanley said that the message would have been very clear.

Do not do anything to provoke retaliation from Donald Trump.

Don't bring heat.

Normalize what is happening.

And he refused.

And so he left.

And from outside the country, he is now saying what many institutions in the United States are too afraid to say, which is that Trump is using classic fascist tactics, a cult of the leader, scapegoating immigrants, LGBTQ people, political opponents.