{"id":151805,"date":"2025-06-01T15:16:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T15:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/why-trump-is-really-going-after-harvard-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T15:16:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T15:16:06","slug":"why-trump-is-really-going-after-harvard-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/why-trump-is-really-going-after-harvard-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump is really going after Harvard – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the US\u2019s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warn
In mortarboards and crimson-fringed gowns, thousands of students were joined by smiling families for the centuries-old ritual of graduation day<\/a>. But this year was different.
Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University<\/a>, received a standing ovation and welcomed graduates \u201cfrom down the street, across the country and around the world\u201d, drawing applause for the last words: \u201cAround the world<\/em> \u2013 just as it should be.\u201d
It was a nod, subtle but firm, to the international students who are part of the lifeblood of Harvard but now a target for Donald Trump<\/a>: his administration is seeking to revoke Harvard\u2019s ability to enroll students from overseas. It is just one front in an escalating battle<\/a> between a US president with authoritarian ambitions and the county\u2019s oldest, wealthiest and most prestigious university.
Since taking office more than four months ago, Trump has used executive power<\/a> to take aim at Congress, law firms, media organisations, cultural institutions and leading universities. Some have resisted but many have capitulated. In Harvard, the man who urged his supporters to \u201cfight, fight, fight\u201d faces a resilient foe unlike any he has taken on before.
Its emergence as a bulwark of the opposition to Trump was summed up by this year\u2019s Class Day speaker<\/a> at Harvard, the former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: \u201cAfter seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom.\u201d
Harvard was founded<\/a> in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, a century-and-a-half before the nation itself. Its alumni include former presidents John F Kennedy and Barack Obama, supreme court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, tech entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, actors Matt Damon and Natalie Portman and writer Margaret Atwood.
Now it is in Trump\u2019s crosshairs. The administration claims its actions are aimed at tackling issues such as antisemitism on campus, discrimination \u2013 particularly against white, Asian, male and straight individuals – foreign influence from China, and perceived \u201cwoke\u201d or \u201cleftist\u201d ideology in academia.
The administration launched its offensive in April, sending a letter to Harvard demanding that it make far-reaching changes in how it operates. The list included external audits of campus viewpoints, achieving \u201cviewpoint diversity\u201d as determined by the government and potentially terminating certain programmes.
Garber publicly rejected the demands, stating they amounted to ceding control of the university to the government and were an unconstitutional attack on academic freedom.
Within hours, the Trump administration announced it was freezing more than $2bn in federal contracts and grants with Harvard, which mostly fund scientific and medical research. This has since risen to a total of $3bn. Harvard is fighting the funding cuts in court.
In May, Trump turned the screws further. He said he is considering taking previously awarded grant money for scientific and engineering research away and giving it to trade schools. The White House urged federal agencies to cancel any remaining contracts with Harvard, worth an estimated $100m.
The administration also announced that it would revoke Harvard\u2019s ability to enroll international students and force current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal immigration status. In a chilling statement<\/a>, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said: \u201cLet this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.\u201d
More than a quarter of Harvard\u2019s students come from outside the US and serve as a vital revenue source at the Ivy League school. Critics warned that Trump\u2019s actions would represent a spectacular own goal, driving the world\u2019s best talents away from the US and into the arms of its competitors.
Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, wrote on Substack<\/a>: \u201cHad Trump\u2019s anti-foreign student policies been in place decades ago, Oxford grad Elon Musk would have built Tesla in the United Kingdom, Tsinghua University alum Jensen Huang would have built Nvidia in the People\u2019s Republic of China or Taiwan, and Moscow State University grad Sergei Brin would have built Google in Russia.\u201d
Harvard sued the administration and won an emergency block on the action. This week, a judge \u200bsaid she would extend the order<\/a> as the two sides continue to thrash it out in court.
Trump is also using the tax system as a cudgel. Most universities, including Harvard, are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be charitable organisations operated exclusively for public educational purposes. The administration is now threatening Harvard\u2019s tax-exempt status, which experts say saves the school hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Trump\u2019s massive spending bill before Congress would drastically hike taxes that Harvard and other elite schools pay on the profits their massive endowment investments make. Critics say that would weaken the ability of Harvard and other rich schools to provide generous financial aid packages to poorer students.
What are the White House\u2019s motives? Some observers detect the hand of JD Vance and the deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. In 2022, Vance told Vanity Fair<\/a> magazine: \u201cI tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left and turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification programme, a de-woke-ification programme.\u201d
And on Thursday, Miller told Fox News<\/a>: \u201cHarvard has engaged in decades of invidious, unlawful and illegal race-based discrimination against American citizens … The Democrat party\u2019s philosophy right now is for foreigners, everything \u2013 for Americans, nothing.\u201d
Jason Johnson<\/a>, a political scientist at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, said: \u201cTheir goal is to intimidate and break down institutions of higher learning in America because that is where most of the resistance to their authoritarian tendencies is going to come from.
\u201cThey figure, if we can bankrupt Harvard, if we can embarrass Harvard, if we can put Harvard in a position of weakness or at least get them to bend the knee, then all the other institutions in America will follow. That\u2019s why they\u2019re doing this.\u201d<\/em>
Johnson warned: \u201cTrump is not going to meet his match because he has the entire resources of the federal government at his disposal. <\/em>Regardless of what Harvard does, there will be other universities who simply see the attack and comply in advance, and that ultimately would still be a victory for the Trump administration.\u201d<\/em>
Other commentators detect an element of class warfare<\/a>. Trump won election last November with a base drawing largely on non-college-educated white men. Now he is stoking hostility towards the ivory towers of the US\u2019s most elite university.
Brendan Boyle<\/a>, a Democratic representative who graduated from Harvard in 2005, said: \u201cPart of Trump\u2019s political skill is figuring out how to portray himself as this working man\u2019s populist hero even though he\u2019s a billionaire who pisses in gold toilets.
\u201cBeating up on Harvard will probably help him among some in his base, but I do think most Americans recognize this for what it is: an attempted government takeover of higher education. That\u2019s something that should actually worry all of us.\u201d
The onslaught against Harvard is typical of an administration that, in its opening weeks, sought to overwhelm opponents with shock and awe. Columbia University made sweeping concessions, hoping to claw back $400m of withdrawn federal grants.
But Harvard\u2019s substantial $53bn endowment provides it with greater capacity to withstand pressure and engage in legal battles compared with less well-endowed institutions. It has refused to buckle to Trump\u2019s demands. Instead, it has challenged the administration\u2019s actions in court and achieved some temporary victories.
Boyle, who spoke with Harvard\u2019s Garber recently, said: \u201cI personally expressed to him how proud I am to see Harvard standing up and not backing down from this fight the way, unfortunately, some other universities had backed down. In standing up to this administration, Harvard is waging a battle not just for the future of Harvard but for the future of American higher education.\u201d
Asked whether he is confident that Harvard will win, Boyle replied: \u201cHarvard has been around for hundreds of years before Donald Trump<\/a> and it will be around for hundreds of years after Donald Trump.\u201d
Trump has long styled himself as a fighter. He waged legal battles during his business career. He has feuded with celebrities ranging from Rosie O\u2019Donnell to Taylor Swift to Bruce Springsteen. He has railed against media outlets such as CNN and the New York Times. In the political arena, he took on the entire Republican party establishment and won. He also waged bitter campaigns against Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
But both Trump\u2019s first and second presidential terms have run afoul of a robust judiciary<\/a> finding many of his actions unconstitutional. This week, a federal court blocked him from imposing sweeping tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. He won a temporary reprieve from an appeals court a day later but his signature set of economic policies remains in doubt.
Academics at Harvard trust that the rule of law will prevail in their own case. Laurence Tribe<\/a>, a professor of constitutional law emeritus, said: \u201cI think we\u2019re going to win the battle in the courts. These are open-and-shut cases.
\u201cIn fact, in the federal courts in the month of May, there were a lot of battles involving Trump against various individuals and institutions, and you know what his record was? He lost 96% of them. The percentage that he lost was not very different depending on which president appointed the judge, because these are easy legal questions.\u201d<\/em>
Holding firm is crucial, Tribe believes, because Trump is trying to pick off universities one by one, just as he did with law firms. At stake is a stand against authoritarianism and the hope that courage will be contagious<\/a>.
\u201cIf they can\u2019t control the university, they want to disband it because the first thought of a tyrant is to suppress the power of reason and the citadel of freedom,\u201d Tribe said. \u201cThat is the university. It\u2019s been true since the Middle Ages. Harvard has an emblematic significance that makes it stick in Donald Trump\u2019s craw. Its motto \u2018veritas<\/em>\u2019 must irritate the hell out of him because truth is his enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If the US\u2019s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warnIn mortarboards and crimson-fringed gowns, thousands of students were joined by smiling families for the centuries-old ritual of graduation day. But this year was different.Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University, received a standing ovation and welcomed graduates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}