How do you deal with a man like Donald Trump? He’s rude one day, gracious the next. Fearless in the morning, TACO in the evening. He’s so mercurial. For that reason alone, I don’t envy Harvard’s attempt to broker a deal with the totally unpredictable president, as the NYT and Globe report . But reading the Globe story in particular, it kind of hit me: Harvard’s strategy may come down to the university convincing Trump that he’s already won on many issues – and that he can declare a great and glorious victory as a result. Bottom line: they may need to stroke his gigantic ego a bit. The Globe provides a pretty solid list of the changes Harvard has already made that align, sort of, with some of the president’s demands. Harvard should also point out to the president another key change that it made last year: dumping its obscene ideological litmus test for new faculty hires. That change was implemented well before Trump won election. But it doesn’t matter. Give him credit anyway! He’ll love it. …  Maybe Harvard president Alan Garber can present this list of changes in a personal letter to the president?

… Don’t get me wrong. I hate what the president is doing to Harvard, as I’ve emphasized here, here and here. I don’t want Harvard to cave. But there’s a difference between appeasement and strategic use of flattery. And the man-child president has repeatedly shown he loves the latter more than the former.