Why Donald Trump’s Harvard attacks will fail

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Ryan Enos, Harvard professor and political scientist, explains how people in his profession were unprepared for Trump’s war on universities, not expecting “authoritarianism” at their own front door.
• He says Trump doesn’t have the support of the American public on this, who don’t care for Harvard but see his actions as an attack on democracy.
• Enos describes Trump as a “petty” man, and says he is attempting to stoke a class war in the US.

What’s the story?

Harvard University is a “pro-terrorist” institution and in league with the Chinese Communist Party.

At least, that’s according to Donald Trump and his administration.

Since coming to power, the US president has sparked a war with some of the biggest universities in America, accusing them of being a breeding ground for antisemitism due to pro-Palestine protests and attempting to ban them from accepting overseas students – a move which has been blocked by a US judge.

Universities were ordered to crack down on student protests and follow government diversity demands, to ensure right-wing viewpoints were promoted on campus alongside prevalent left-wing thinking.

Harvard, the oldest university in the US, was first in the firing line, but unlike other institutions – such as Columbia – it refused to bow to political pressure, and stood its ground.

The Trump administration froze $2.2bn (£1.7bn) of funding to the university, after claims from the president it was teaching "hate and stupidity".

Ryan Enos, a political scientist and associate professor at Harvard tells The News Agents that, despite his expertise and experience, he was blindsided by these attacks and threats.

“People like myself, political scientists in the United States, we always thought this was something we studied from afar, almost like an astronomer studying a distant galaxy,” he tells Jon Sopel.

“I think this created blinders for us, where we didn't expect to see this coming in the United States, and we didn't recognise it, because we didn't know what authoritarianism would look like here.”

In April 2025, Harvard responded to Trump’s demands with a statement from its president saying no US president, regardless of party, should dictate what a private university can teach.

Donald Trump ‘attacking the pillars of society’

But Enos isn’t shaken by Trump’s attacks – as evidence shows the public side with the university, rather than the president.

“When Trump attacks institutions of the United States and attacks civil society, Americans don't like that, and they see this for what it is,” he says.

“They don't care about Harvard, and I understand that, but they see this as something of a larger principle around democracy.”

Trump’s actions towards universities, he adds, are down to nothing more than his own “political grievances”, and a sense of “anti-intellectualism” in US politics.

“This is what he's pursuing right now, but more seriously – and more darkly – what we see Donald Trump doing is attacking pillars of civil society in the way that authoritarians do in places like Hungary, Turkey or Venezuela, when they wanted to dismantle democracy.

“In addition to law firms and the press, which is what Donald Trump has also attacked, they attacked universities because they see universities as places of dissent.”

Trump's attacks on Harvard, claiming it fosters antisemitism and is in league with the Chinese Communist Party have "no basis in reality", Enos says, adding there is no evidence that any member of Harvard faculty has encouraged antisemitism.

Students on campus staged pro-Palestine protests in the months that followed the Hamas terror attack of October 7 and Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza, which has lasted more than 18 months.

Trump administration using Harvard for ‘political game’

The president’s agenda has been echoed by key members of his administration, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently claiming that the US needs more electricians and plumbers, and “less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard University.”

Enos says her comment was "shocking in many respects" – and managed to insult electricians, plumbers and LGBTQ+ people in one short sentence by using electricians and plumbers as a “political pawn rather than people in a valid profession,” and LGBTQ+ people by suggesting there is something “wrong” with them and their place in society.

“I don't know what the point of it was, but I think that American society, and world society more generally, has benefited tremendously from the people that come out of Harvard, and not only Harvard, but the higher education system in the United States,” Enos says.

Donald Trump, he says, does not share this "world vision" of Harvard.

“These attacks on it are turning this into some kind of petty political game where they're trying to create class warfare between plumbers and Harvard grads.

“If that's what they're trying to do, it does nothing for American society. It does nothing for the world, and frankly, I think they should be ashamed of making statements like that.”

‘Petty’ president focused on personal grievances

But not all US universities stood firm when they came into Trump's firing line. When Columbia University gave in to Trump's demands, banning pro-Palestine protests and ejecting students who have been involved, the Trump Administration simply issued more demands of its faculty and students.

“It would have taken away our independence as an institution if we had done the same,” Enos says.

“It would have ended the independence of the most prominent institution of higher education in the United States, and that would have been a shocking thing to see happen.”

He ultimately sees Trump’s actions, not as a powerful president, but of a man with an axe to grind.

“We know that Donald Trump, despite being the most powerful person in the world, is a remarkably petty person,” he says.

“And he seems to fixate on grievances he has with individuals, no matter how important or unimportant they are.”

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