So, it turns out that the Trump Administration going to war with Harvard University was a mistake on its part,

I have a different suspicion. My hunch is that even (some) Right Wingers were appalled at this intrusion into trying to dictate to Universities how they should be run and what they should teach. Not that that isn’t a desired objective, just that they (the “small government” contingent) doesn’t think the President (or anyone in government) should be telling private institutions how to be run - at least not with this specificity of dictat.

While this sort of thing is likely wildly popular with “the base” - and plays to Trump’s (and Vance’s and MAGAT’s) predilections anyway, there are still a few on the conservative side (Wall Street Journal, some think tanks) who think he’s beginning to reach too far and have made their objections known. (Ho ho ho, and I’m not exaggerating with the italics.)

I have no way to prove any of this, of course, but then I would hardly expect them to say “Oh, we screwed up with our general philosophy” as opposed to “Oh, we sent an email by mistake.”