President Trump has gone on another rant against Harvard University as the Cambridge school sues his administration, claiming the campus is antisemitic and a “threat to Democracy.”
Trump went on Truth Social Thursday morning to rip Harvard amid the federal funding lawsuit against his administration.
After Harvard rejected a list of demands from the Trump admin, the feds froze more than $2 billion in grants to the Ivy League school. That led to Harvard filing a lawsuit against the Trump admin in Boston federal court earlier this week.
Trump has also threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The Trump admin has been citing the university’s response to antisemitism as a justification for freezing the grants and taking other actions.
“Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart,” Trump’s Truth Social post stated on Thursday. “The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE. It is truly horrific!
“Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all ‘American Apple Pie,’ ” the post continued. “Harvard is a threat to Democracy, with a lawyer, who represents me, who should therefore be forced to resign, immediately, or be fired. He’s not that good, anyway, and I hope that my very big and beautiful company, now run by my sons, gets rid of him ASAP!”
The Trump admin last week sent a list of demands to Harvard for the university to receive federal research funding. Those demands included an “audit” of the viewpoints of Harvard’s student body, faculty, and staff, eliminating DEI programs, and more.
Hours after Harvard rejected the demands, the feds froze more than $2 billion in grants and contracts to the university. Then Harvard filed the lawsuit “to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority,” Harvard President Alan Garber wrote.
Garber went on NBC Nightly News to discuss the lawsuit.
“What they are indicating is that they want to directly review who we hire on our faculty. That has implications for what kinds of views can be expressed on campus,” Garber said.
“They also want to be able to tell us who we need to fire, and they also want to intervene in our admissions’ processes,” he added. “That is what we are objecting to… We are defending what I believe is one of the most important linchpins of the American economy and way of life — our universities.”
Garber said this situation is “bigger than Harvard.”
“What’s at risk is the excellence of higher education in the United States,” he said. “And in particular, the research mission of many of our universities, which play such a vital role in the U.S. economy, and in the health and wellbeing of the American people.”
Trump in his Truth Social post mentioned a lawyer who represents him. One of the attorneys representing Harvard is William Burck, who represented multiple Trump associates during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.
In January, the Trump Organization announced that it was hiring Burck to vet deals that could pose conflicts with public policy. He also represented the Paul Weiss law firm when it reached a settlement last month with the Trump White House that resulted in an earlier executive order against it being rescinded.
Burck also represented New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft against accusations that he paid for massage parlor sex acts. Florida prosecutors later dismissed the case.
For the Trump administration, Harvard presents the first major hurdle in its attempt to force change at universities that Republicans say have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism.
Trump’s campaign started at Columbia University, which initially agreed to several demands from the administration but took a more emboldened tone after Harvard’s defiance. Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, said in a campus message Monday that some of the demands “are not subject to negotiation” and that she read of Harvard’s rejection with “great interest.”
Trump has targeted schools accused of tolerating antisemitism amid a wave of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses. Some of the government’s demands touch directly on that activism, calling on Harvard to impose tougher discipline on protesters and to screen international students for those who are “hostile to the American values.”
Herald wire services were used in this report.