Why Trump is really going after Harvard

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Why Trump is really going after Harvard

If the US’s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warn

David Smith in Washington
Sun 1 Jun 2025 11.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 2 Jun 2025 13.11 BST

-snip-

Since taking office more than four months ago, Trump has used executive power 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 “fight, fight, fight” 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’s Class Day speaker at Harvard, the former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “After 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.”

Harvard was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636, a century and a half before the nation itself. Its alumni include the 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’s crosshairs. The administration claims its actions are aimed at tackling issues such as antisemitism on campus, discrimination – particularly against white, Asian, male and straight individuals – foreign influence from China, and perceived “woke” or “leftist” ideology in academia.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/01/trump-harvard-authoritarianism-democracy

Alternate link: https://news.yahoo.com/news/why-trump-really-going-harvard-100010031.html

[Demovictory9]

1. "Jason Johnson, a political scientist at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, said: "Their goal is to intimid

Jason Johnson, a political scientist at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, said: “Their 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.

“They 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’s why they’re doing this.”

Johnson warned: “Trump is not going to meet his match because he has the entire resources of the federal government at his disposal. 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.”

Other commentators detect an element of class warfare. 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’s most elite university.