A Conservative Call to Bring Back Honesty, National Sovereignty, and Academic Excellence in American Schools

Today, there is a lot of bureaucratic red tape and ideological gatekeeping. That’s why President Donald Trump’s latest order on higher education licensing hits home with millions of conservatives. His efforts to reform are not just small changes to the way things are run; they are a bold, system-wide change that aims to free one of the most important institutions in the United States: education.

The conservative podcast Ruthless, which is hosted by John Ashbrook, Comfortably Smug, and Michael Duncan, recently went on The Will Cain Show to talk about what they see as the long-overdue return to accountability, national interest, and educational merit in the U.S. college and university system. The Ruthless crew praised Trump’s executive order as a necessary wake-up call to an over-burdened and corrupted accreditation system. Their style is a mix of humor, analysis, and biting culture commentary.

This isn’t just another argument about college costs or free speech on campus. Many Republicans across the country see it as a fight over ideas that goes to the heart of the American mind.

How a license turned into a weapon

At the heart of Trump’s plan is the idea that accrediting agencies, which are like invisible hands that decide if schools can get government money, are no longer impartial judges of academic quality. In the eyes of the Ruthless team and many conservatives, they have instead become societal enforcers of a progressive frame of mind.

At first, the job of accrediting agencies was to make sure that schools met certain minimum standards for quality education. However, these groups have become ideological gatekeepers over the last 20 years, especially when they say they are supporting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Schools that don’t follow social beliefs that are becoming more and more extreme could be punished or even lose their accreditation.

This is not about making learning better. It has to do with making people follow social and political rules.

This trend is stopped by the executive order, which tells accrediting agencies they need to put academic success and openness first. It makes them answerable for continuing to approve schools that don’t do a good job or help their students. And maybe most importantly, it takes away the high ground from ideological DEI standards, putting the focus back on quality instead of conformity.

How DEI’s ideas have gone bad

For many years, conservative foes have been warning that ideological ideas are getting into schools. With DEI projects getting more attention, many people now think those fears were real. Even though these programs talk about being fair and including everyone, they have actually pushed traditional values to the side, changed the course of history, and made suffering a normal part of life.

It is now required by accreditation agencies for universities to follow DEI principles in order to keep their good status. They went against the original goals of academic freedom and constitutional independence by doing this. The Ruthless hosts say that this is not only against the rules, but also against federal law.

Because the Department of Education agreed to these accreditation standards, there is now a feedback loop in which ideological conformity is praised and academic freedom is punished. The goal of Trump’s order is to end that loop. It serves as a reminder to the accrediting bodies that they work for the American people and not for activist faculty or foreign NGOs.

The Evil Foreign Horse in American Schools

The Ruthless team dropped a shocking fact on The Will Cain Show that might have been the most shocking thing ever: in 2024 alone, over $175 billion came from outside the U.S. to fund schools and universities. That’s not just a record; it’s a huge change. To give you an idea of how big that amount is, the overall amount of these kinds of donations over the last few decades was about $60 billion.

It’s no surprise that most of this money comes from China.

Top schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have taken huge donations from foreign countries and companies with ties to those governments. They often say that these donations are for study, the sharing of technology, or working together with other countries, but the truth is much less clear.

These gifts come with ideological strings, which is something that Trump and conservatives across the country are worried about.

Foreign governments are buying influence in the very heart of the U.S. education system through things like Confucius Institutes, curriculum guidance, and faculty appointments. This is not a friendly sharing of cultures. It is a planned invasion meant to weaken the U.S.’s resolve, break up its society, and sow the seeds of division among its intellectual elite.

It’s no longer just about education when billions of dollars are sent from dictatorships to the thoughts of young people in the United States. It turns into a matter of safety for the whole country.

China’s plan is to brainwash people instead of teaching them

There is a scary parallel that the Ruthless team makes: what if the $175 billion is not an investment in education but in ideas?

China doesn’t give money to Western organizations because it wants to be nice. For this reason, the government changes the lessons, makes totalitarian values seem normal, and raises American leaders who support Chinese interests or don’t want to fight them.

They don’ need to get guns. There is no need for them to fight. They only need to teach the next generation of American leaders how to be like them.

It works, though.

It’s no longer weird to teach Marxist economics, critical race theory, or “decolonizing science.” They are important parts of the curriculum at many top schools. If faculty members question these trends, they could be scolded in public, lose their status, or even be fired. Students who speak out against the rules are called bullies. This is not teaching; it’s brainwashing.

The order that Trump made is like a wall. It says that American education should look out for American values. It sends the message that foreign power, no matter how profitable it is, can’t hurt the country’s honor.

Getting back to the mission of higher education

College in the United States has been a ladder of possibility at its best. It has given the world Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, inventors, writers, business owners, and people who work for the government. But these days, it looks like the system cares less about making great thinkers and more about making ideological workers who follow orders.

The Ruthless podcast shows how silly it is for accrediting groups to punish schools for not having “sufficient DEI infrastructure” while still approving schools with high dropout rates, huge amounts of student debt, and unhealthy campus environments.

This is the value being turned around. No longer are schools judged on how well they teach; they are judged on how politically correct they are.

Trump’s change brings back real standards. It turns the attention back to results that can be measured, like “Are students graduating?” Are they getting work? Are they learning important things? Finally, these are the questions that should be asked.

The Uproar in the Media

As expected, the traditional media reacted with howls of anger. A lot of people spoke out against what they called “white nationalism,” “anti-intellectualism,” and “authoritarian overreach.” It was typical of the Ruthless team to brush off these criticisms with a smile and a shrug.

Their point is clear: people are angry not because Trump is wrong. They know he’s right, that’s why.

Through revealing the close ties between powerful people in the media, universities, and left-wing organizations, Trump has revealed a hidden web of ideology and power. He has put the power structures that live in the dark in danger by doing this.

Cultural Populism and the Appeal of Being Like Everyone Else

People love the Ruthless podcast because it speaks to their feelings. It doesn’t try too hard. It doesn’t give advice. It doesn’t use intellectual jargon to hide its points. Instead, it directs the angry populism that millions of Americans have toward elite institutions that say they are morally better than others while doing worse work.

In one funny segment, the hosts make fun of the pomp and pretension of traditional news sites that report with fake gravity, as if they were reading from a marble pulpit. On the other hand, they record while wearing hoodies and ball caps, making jokes, and drinking coffee.

It’s not just style; it’s content.

It shows that the right movement is not about excluding people or putting them in a certain order. It has to do with being honest, being open, and using common sense. And those principles should be at the center of the fight for education.

When politics come into the classroom

The podcast also talks about bigger political issues, such as a custody fight that is still going on and has been in the news because of how politically charged the legal process is. These conversations may not seem to have anything to do with each other, but they do support the main idea: when organizations stop serving the people and start serving ideology, everyone loses.

Conservative Americans are realizing that our institutions have been taken over, whether it’s the Department of Education, the courts, or the mass media. A brave leader like Trump is the only one who can take them back.

The Real Battle for the Future of the United States

It’s not the end; this order is just the start.

This opens the door for bigger changes, like making university finances more open, ending government funded ideological programs, and checking all foreign money connections to US schools.

It asks us to rethink what higher education should be—not a way to get into progressive politics, but a place to learn about social virtue, innovation, and excellence.

The sharp wit and deep understanding of the Ruthless podcast perfectly catch this moment: a return to traditional values in education. And it all comes down to a simple message from Trump and his supporters:

That’s enough.

A Renaissance of Conservatism in Education

Already, state lawmakers are acting like Trump did, and some conservative governors are calling for similar audits and changes to how schools are accredited. Reports and draft laws are being made by think tanks and advocacy groups. On top of that, regular Americans like parents, kids, and teachers are starting to wonder what kind of education their tax dollars are really paying for.

This order is the rallying cry for a change in culture that is already happening.

Conservatives have given up on the battleground of education for a long time and are now focused on other areas of politics. But not anymore. With help from podcasts like the Ruthless one, the GOP under Trump is reclaiming its voice in the classroom, on accreditation boards, and in university fund ledgers.

It’s not just about schools. It’s about what kind of country we are.

The American experiment just got a little stronger, a little more free, and a lot more resilient thanks to this executive order and the people who spoke out in support of it.