There are really only two analogies he could have used, because there are only two cases in (post-Mongol) history where a nation with the best universities in the world experienced a calamitous fall from grace. One was in Nazi Germany.
The other incident was Napoleon's conquest of France, Italy, and Spain, and the damage that was done by the anti-Church reforms imposed on those universities. This is a closer analogy, since Napoleon's reforms were nominally "liberalizing" in that he had proclaimed the abolition of nobility and its continuation via said institutions. But it's unlikely that the Twitter mobs would have been any happier about being compared to Napoleon instead of Hitler.
The other incident was Napoleon's conquest of France, Italy, and Spain, and the damage that was done by the anti-Church reforms imposed on those universities. This is a closer analogy, since Napoleon's reforms were nominally "liberalizing" in that he had proclaimed the abolition of nobility and its continuation via said institutions. But it's unlikely that the Twitter mobs would have been any happier about being compared to Napoleon instead of Hitler.