In the midst of a lively, rambling speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month — a two-hour, improvisational performance full of typically Trumpian insults, bravado, and self-aggrandizement that began with the president giving a bear hug to an American flag — President Trump decided to make a serious policy announcement.

Joined on stage by Hayden Williams, a right-wing activist who was recently assaulted on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, Trump vowed that he’d “soon” issue an executive order “requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.” If colleges and universities “want our dollars, and we give to them by the billions, they have to allow people like Hayden and many other great young people and old people to speak,” the president declared.