Maura Healey, the governor of Massachusetts, stated on Sunday that the Trump administration’s “bad for science” policies will force American researchers to join China and other countries.
The Massachusetts Democrat remarked, “Face the Nation,” in reference to the administration’s ongoing dispute with Harvard University and its reductions in scientific and medical research: Scientists and researchers are departing the United States to work in other nations, and research labs are closing.
In essence, Donald Trump is donating his intellectual property.
Healey claimed that President Donald Trump is undermining the country’s standing as the global leader in scientific research in an interview with guest anchor Weijia Jiang.
“As governor, I want Massachusetts soaring,” she said. “I want America soaring. And what Donald Trump is doing is basically saying to China and other … countries, come to the United States, take our scientists, take our researchers and that, and that’s what’s happening.”
Significant cuts to the National Institutes for Health and other organizations were also discussed in the interview, but Harvard’s declaration last week that it would not budge to the administration’s demands to alter its policies in order to keep receiving federal funding was specifically brought up.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Harvard President Alan Garber stated.
Trump has persisted in disparaging Harvard, despite administration officials stating that the university must adhere to the law in order to be eligible for that financing.
“Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” he said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. Harvard should no longer get federal funding because it is a joke that promotes ignorance and hatred.
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Trump’s attacks against Harvard, according to Healey, are part of a broader pattern of conduct.
“First, he went after the law firms. Then he went after companies. Then he went after everyday Americans,” she stated. “Now he’s going after colleges and universities, using any and all tactics to try to shut them down, to silence them. That’s what Donald Trump is about. There’s no merit to any of this. And of course, it’s illegal.”
She added that despite numerous federal cuts, she is working to keep her state solvent.
“There is no way,” she stated, “a state can begin to make up for the cuts to federal funding, the cuts that Donald Trump has made to education, to health care, food for kids, heating assistance for seniors. He just cut off FEMA disaster relief for our states the other day, and, as governor, I’m going to do everything I can to protect my residents, to protect our state, to protect our economy, but he makes it really difficult.”
