Trump-era politics blurs lines as cabinet secretary uses family video to criticize Harvard

A cabinet secretary fretting about his daughter’s university choice might once have been considered a private family matter. In Donald Trump’s America, it has become official content.

US transport secretary Sean Duffy recently appeared with his family in a road trip series carried on the department’s YouTube page. In one episode, his daughter, Paloma, said if she were admitted to Harvard University, she would probably urge her parents to let her attend. Duffy, however, warned the university had become adept at taking “good young girls” and corrupting their minds.

Parents worry about their children’s futures. They are also free to hold firm views about Harvard, faith, politics and the value of an elite education. But this was a serving cabinet member who turned a domestic matter into content for a government-linked video series. It shows how much American politics has changed. The boundaries between public office, personal branding, family life and political messaging have blurred. A university becomes a symbol of everything one side fears about the other.

For overseas students, it reinforces an impression that American higher education has become more uncertain, politicised and difficult to access.