Harvard does not bend, Trump blocks funding and threatens the university
The White House blames the university for the anti-Israel protests and freezes $2.2 billion in funding. But the right wing's target is inclusion policies. Stanford and Obama in the field against government interference
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3' min read
3' min read
Harvard does not bend and Donald Trump responds with all the strength and ideological determination of the new right wing in power in Washington. While Stanford and alumnus Barack Obama are also on the side of the University of Massachusetts.
After having frozen more than $2.2 billion in multi-year subsidies to Harvard, the American president has put forward the possibility of also taking away from the university the tax exemptions guaranteed to higher education institutions: between tax rebates and donation facilities something like at least half a million dollars per year.
"Perhaps Harvard," Trump wrote on Truth Social, "should lose its tax-exempt status and be taxed as a political entity if it continues to promote politically inspired/motivated, ideological, and terrorist 'diseases'?" The president accuses Harvard University, like other American universities, of failing to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of the past two years, thus fostering anti-Semitism. But the protests against Israel appear to be a pretext; in its battle, the White House has targeted the so-called left-wing culture, the progressives who lead the universities, and the diversity, equity and inclusion policies that also guide student recruitment and admissions. "Remember, tax-exempt status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!" the tycoon wrote again on social.
Harvard unleashed a frontal attack from the White House, making it clear that it would oppose calls to change the governance structure by dismissing concerns about anti-Semitism on campuses. It had also accused the government of 'overstepping its authority'. While the lawyers she relied on (considered to be very close to Trump, among others) had explained that 'Harvard has made and will continue to make lasting and robust structural, policy, and programmatic changes to ensure that the university is a welcoming and supportive learning environment'.
Under the threat of funding cuts, other universities - from Columbia University to Northwestern, from Cornell University to Princeton - have bowed somewhat to the government's wishes, but Harvard's president, Alan Garber, in a letter to the university community drew a line in opposition to the government: 'Our university,' he explained, 'will not give up its independence nor will it give up its constitutional rights.
