Trump’s university crackdown: ‘He’s trying to wipe out a class of people he doesn’t like’
Harvard University is refusing to accept demands from President Donald Trump over how it hires its staff and teaches its students, after claims that pro-Palestine protests on its campus are antisemitic and have resulted in harassment of Jewish students. Is this the first time he’s experienced resistance on his home turf?
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In brief…
- Donald Trump has threatened to end federal payments, worth billions, to Harvard University, if it doesn’t restrict free speech and protest (among other things) on campus.
- The News Agents say Harvard’s refusal is a rare example of a US institution standing up to Trump is a rare example of someone with “a spine” pushing back against the president’s demands.
- They say that this new attack on academia may be part of Trump’s plan to get rid of academics and intellectuals and push American workers into manufacturing roles, to support his floundering tariffs scheme.
What’s the story?
It takes a lot to stand up to Donald Trump, but Harvard University – one of America's most celebrated and well known educational institutions – has done precisely that.
Trump has threatened to freeze $2.2 billion (£1.7 billion) of funding if Harvard does not comply with a new list of rules on how universities hire, teach and govern, in an attempt to to crack down on anti-semitism on its campus.
Harvard is one of around 60 US universities facing having federal funding axed over pro-Palestine protests which have taken place on campus since the Israel-Gaza war broke out following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Columbia University has applied Trump’s demands, after $400 million of funding was frozen over the same issues.
Trump's administration claims protests against Israel's actions have resulted in the harassment of Jewish students in universities where they have taken place.
In previous attempts to appease the US government, Harvard has axed the leaders of its Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, and suspended its Religion, Conflict and Peace Initiative due to allegations of anti-Israel bias.
Emily Maitlis says that some of Trump's demands, such as ensuring protesters on campus are not masked, are understandable.
Others, she describes as "really uncomfortable", such as allowing an external body to audit university departments for viewpoint diversity.
Is this Trump’s first taste of resistance?
Trump is used to getting his way, and it worked with Columbia, so Harvard's refusal to bow to his demands won't go down well in the White House.
Emily says it has decided that getting this issue "right" is more important than the funding it could lose if it doesn't make a stand.
"It has made a very clear statement that neither Harvard, or any other private university, can allow itself to be taken over by federal government," she says.
"So cheers have gone up basically all over the campus that someone has found a spine.
"We have found somebody – admittedly somebody in a position of huge power and influence – to say we can't lie down and take this."
She adds that if universities are allowed to be shaped into institutions that simply teach what a government wants people to learn, they wash their hands of independence of thought.
Jon Sopel says he's impressed that Harvard has taken a strong stance at a time when even political institutions have been unwilling to offer the slightest resistance to Trump's agenda.
"We have seen Donald Trump take control of Congress where nobody has a spine," he says.
"We have seen him take control of the Senate. We have seen him take control of the Republican Party."
He adds that Trump believes his supporters will be fine with him "roughing up" institutions such as Columbia and Harvard, despite being considered by many as America's finest university and a source of enormous scientific and medical research.
"The idea that the person who's meant to be the champion of the United States is trashing this most venerated of US institutions for its scholarship, and for its medical research, for the science, for keeping America ahead in the race for AI," Jon says.
"Where do you think all this stuff happens? It happens at places like Harvard."
What's The News Agents' take?
Having caused global chaos with his tariffs, Trump is now stirring it up on home soil with his new attacks on universities – but is this all part of his grand plan?
"I guess we're always looking for logic in Trump," says Emily.
"I do think this is a bit of a plan that, combined with what he's trying to do on tariffs, is a reorganisation of economic development."
Instead of trying to move your whole population from blue collar to white collar, it's trying to get more people into manufacturing."
She believes his goal is to get rid of academics and intellectuals, and get more Americans into factory work.
"It is a complete backward step reversal, which feels quite Marxist.
"It feels genuinely like a plan is afoot to wipe out a class of people that Trump doesn't particularly like.
"He goes between loving the elites and hating the elites – wanting to be elite, wanting to be part of that whole scene, and then trying to crush it at the same time."