Harvard vs. Trump; The Inevitable Clash

Harvard is in Trump’s Crosshairs for Good Reasons. And before this is All Over Trump May Turn Up the Heat.

I believe that it was inevitable that at some point, Harvard, a bastion of progressivism, globalism and wokeness would clash with the conservative, America first, Trump administration. Harvard believes in Diversity, Equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, and they believe in affirmative action admissions policies, and to top it off, as if that weren’t bad enough, they want a third of their students to be foreigners. Trump believes in merit, both in hiring and admissions, and he would like to see slots at America’s best college reserved for American students. Harvard and Trump have two completely different views of America and the world; I think that they accurately represent Blue and Red America.

It is safe to say that the people who attend, work and run Harvard, with a few possible exceptions, would not identify with the MAGA movement. And it is safe to say that in Harvard classrooms, student union buildings and faculty lounges the talk of Trump and what he is doing is, shall we say, not positive. I think the attitude there is one of resistance.

Aside from ideological differences, this clash was guaranteed because Harvard receives Federal money, despite sitting on a nearly 54-billion-dollar endowment. The other source of contention is that Harvard wants to bring in lots of foreign students. Both Federal money and foreign students have opened the door for Trump to target Harvard, which I am sure he is happy to do. Just like Lincoln was happy that the hotheads in Charleston attacked Ft. Sumter. The war has begun.

Trump is itching for a fight. He objects to the fact that colleges, such as Harvard, should get Federal money, and in addition, they want to fill the campus with foreign students, many from countries hostile to the United States. And Trump knows that his political base has no interest in funding Harvard.

As far as foreign students coming to Harvard. There is no right in the Constitution for anyone in the world to come to the United States to study. It seems to me that the decision is up to either the Congress through legislation, or the President through a student visa system. The school and certainly not the courts have the power to grant foreign students’ entry into the country. The courts have no power under Article 3 of the Constitution to rule who can come in. But Harvard is run by globalists, and in a court filing the college admitted that “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.” Trump countered on Friday saying, “Harvard is going to have to change its ways.”

How bad is this tension between the nation’s top college and the White House? Well, The Atlantic, the flagship magazine of the left, claimed last week that Trump was seemingly engaged in a “war on Harvard.” That’s right, a “war on” Harvard not a “war with” Harvard. A USA Today editorial claimed that Trump’s attack on Harvard was part of a “scheme to hurt education”, and one lefty claims that Trump is going after Harvard because his son didn’t get in. This is absurd because Trump has already said publicly that the decision is up to Barron.

All of this could have been avoided if Harvard spent its own money and didn’t take taxpayers money, but they are arrogant, and who can blame them considering that they are used to getting money from Washington for free. Both Democrats and Republicans allowed it.

In general, the left doesn’t seem to think that any strings should be attached to the money that goes to progressive causes, whether it is USAID, Planned Parenthood or Harvard. Somehow their federal funds should be untouchable and if a politician tries to cut that money it is an attack on “educational freedom”. Well, Trump is going after their federal funds. He has even suggested sending that money to trade schools. I like that idea, and I can think of some other better options for that money as well.

Some background, last year Harvard lost a landmark case, Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard. The case centered on Harvard’s admissions policies. The high court found that Harvard discriminated, specifically against Asian students, and therefore they violated the constitutional rights of prospective students. My guess is that Trump still believes that Harvard is discriminating, and the fact that Harvard is setting a requirement to have at least 30 percent of the student body be foreign students, at least in Trump’s mind, is another example of discrimination.

I think it is likely that Trump, if not convinced that Harvard is complying with the Supreme Court decision, may turn up the heat. According to an article in The Spectator World, Trump is considering using a law, the False Claims Act, to threaten Harvard with prosecution if they continue to discriminate while taking taxpayer funds. In a memo on May 19, Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General wrote:

“Accordingly, a university that accepts federal funds could violate the False Claims Act when it encourages antisemitism, refuses to protect Jewish students, allows men to intrude into women’s bathrooms, or requires women to compete against men in athletic competitions. Colleges and universities cannot accept federal funds while discriminating against their students. The False Claims Act is also implicated whenever federal-funding recipients or contractors certify compliance with civil rights laws while knowingly engaging in racist preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities, including through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that assign benefits or burdens on race, ethnicity, or national origin. While racial discrimination has always been illegal, the prohibition on such policies became clear after the Supreme Court stated that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”

The other objection that Trump has with Harvard, in addition to being a home for pro Hamas students and being unwelcoming to Jews, is that they are also letting in students from China. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, high ranking Chinese communists send their kids to Harvard,

“Harvard enjoys a sterling reputation among Chinese officials thanks to its record in training highflying bureaucrats who went on to take senior government roles and, in some cases, join the party’s elite Politburo.”

In fact, the school is so popular that Shanghai’s main communist newspaper praised Harvard bragging, “If we were to rank the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘overseas party schools,’ the one deserving top spot has to be Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in the U.S.”

Trump is not happy that Harvard is educating our adversary/enemy and in response Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the State Department will, “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”

Harvard wants to be an international school, not just an American school and while Trump sees them as educating our enemies, Harvard no doubt believes that their students are for peace – even the pro Hamas students chanting, “From the river to the sea.” Sadly, but not surprisingly, Harvard has no moral qualms with educating communists.

Harvard can pretty much do what they want, with the exception of discrimination, but if they take Federal funds, I think Trump is right to make demands.

David Shephard is the author of two books. Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.

Norton’s Choice:An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books