Harvard University is under siege by the Trump administration – and the world is watching. As scholars who study nationalism, emotion and higher education, we explore the emotional politics behind these attacks. Similarly, in India, students at Jawaharlal Nehru University were labeled “anti-national” for protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act, which provides fast-track citizenship to non-Muslim refugees. In Hungary, Orbán mobilizes a glorified Christian past to challenge discourses on diversity, inclusion, critical inquiry and academic freedom in higher education. But more recently, it has been cast as a defender of liberal higher education – making it a Trump administration target.