Trump’s proposal for an 'American Academy,' a new government-operated online university funded by taxing the deep-pocketed endowments of private universities, is intriguing. There’s a clear demand for low-cost or "free" flexible online education, especially since “free college” consistently polls well. Using these funds to support worker retraining could also help reduce the need for future student loans. However, there’s a major issue: the same bureaucrats who hindered Trump's first-term initiatives would likely be tasked with building this new system. If Trump wants to challenge ideological orthodoxy and avoid creating another echo chamber of left-wing dogma, he must look outside the current higher education system for leadership. His call to reform college accreditation is a better path, opening the door for new, performance-based providers and fostering true competition.