HBO’s John Oliver returned to 2023 and 2024 on Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight as he sought to explain why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and current university president Richard Corcoran, and conservative activist Chris Rufo’s rebrand of New College of Florida is worse than the Nazis.
Specifically, Oliver chose to focus on the decision to dump the gender studies department. He lamented, “For all Corcoran's rhetoric about building a school that would engage in great debates, certain sides were deliberately purged. For instance, the school got rid of its gender studies program, with Rufo bragging they'd gotten rid of a ‘massive’ and ‘radical’ department that indoctrinates students, despite the fact that, in reality, it had a budget of just $7,000 for programs and expenses and a part-time office manager.
John Oliver rewound to 2024 to denounce Chris Rufo and Ron DeSantis's transformation of New College of Florida, saying they make the Nazis look good by comparison, "Rufo even gleefully retweeted coverage of that saying "We abolished the gender studies program. Now we're throwing… pic.twitter.com/NHmerVeHcl
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) June 9, 2026
That is dishonest. New College’s gender studies department had a professor whose resignation letter did not do anything to change the perception the department was “radical” and meant to indoctrinate students.
Nevertheless, Oliver continued, “And when the students were away on break, the school cleared out the ‘Gender and Diversity Center,' which was basically just a lounge with couches with a ‘student-curated library,’ and threw all the books away.”
Oliver then brought up an old Rufo tweet and made his Nazi analogy:
Rufo even gleefully retweeted coverage of that, saying, ‘We abolished the gender studies program. Now we're throwing out the trash.’ And setting aside that one of those books is a book of fucking puzzles—I don't even want to say what I need to right now. So I'm not going to say it. That said—and remember, I'm not saying this, but say what you will about—here it comes—the Nazis, but stick with me—credit where it's due—I know when the Nazis went after books, they went big. They didn't wait for the students to be on break. At least the Nazis—I hear it too—were bold.
Imagine if a college had a Trump studies department that was devoted to teaching students why Donald Trump is the greatest president in history, and then the state government shut it down by arguing it was indoctrinating students. Does anyone really think John Oliver would compare that to Nazism? No, of course not, but Oliver is doing that with gender studies departments because he likes what they preach, not for any sort of debate he imagines they have.
Here is a script for the June 7 show:
HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
6/7/2026
11:24 PM ET
JOHN OLIVER: For all Corcoran's rhetoric about building a school that would engage in great debates, certain sides were deliberately purged. For instance, the school got rid of its gender studies program, with Rufo bragging they'd gotten rid of a "massive" and "radical" department that indoctrinates students,” despite the fact that, in reality, it had a budget of just $7,000 for programs and expenses and a part-time office manager.
And when the students were away on break, the school cleared out the "Gender and Diversity Center" which was basically just a lounge with couches with a “student-curated library” and threw all the books away.
Rufo even gleefully retweeted coverage of that, saying "We abolished the gender studies program. Now we're throwing out the trash." And setting aside that one of those books is a book of fucking puzzles— I don't even want to say what I need to right now. So I'm not going to say it. That said—and remember, I'm not saying this, but say what you will about — here it comes — the Nazis, but — stick with me — credit where it's due — I know — when the Nazis went after books, they went big. They didn't wait for the students to be on break. At least the Nazis — I hear it too — were bold.
