RSSIn fairness, the Harvard as a Hedge Fund meme was already around in 2008, four years before Ron’s article: https://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/harvard-hedge-fund-robert-verbruggen/. In 2010, even the Business Insider covered the issue: https://www.businessinsider.com/harvards-endowment-fund-is-11-up-this-year-2010-9
Also, the lawsuit by Asian students against Harvard wasn’t based on Ron’s meritocracy article, but on Edward Blum’s Project on Fair Representation, founded in 2005, and an already ongoing lawsuit against the University of Texas. The “bamboo ceiling” on Asian student admissions was exposed by Epenshade and Radford in 2009, three years before Ron’s article: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-jun-13-la-oe-chen-fisher-asian-affirmative-action-20130613-story.html
Finally, Jared Kushner’s dubious Harvard admission was widely and repeatedly covered by mainstream media. It’s just that during the 2016 Trump campaign, Kushner did not yet play any official role.