The chilling effect of Trump's actions is felt well beyond the quad

Published May 28, 2026 6:00AM (EDT)

Pro Palestinian protesters stand off with police during a rally on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

This article was originally published on The Conversation .

Younger Americans have soured on the second Donald Trump presidency , but they are not protesting it.

Despite an unpopular Iran war and an even more unpopular Trump administration , college campus protests nationwide have gone silent . And at many schools, student activism is virtually nonexistent .

This silence comes in the wake of a relentless Trump administration war on campus speech that has involved lawsuits , arrests , deportations and expulsions .

Reports cite a range of complicated factors for the restraint, from apathy to technology-induced incapacity.…