President Trump intensified his criticism of Harvard University on Monday, stating that he is thinking of allocating $3 billion in grant funds that the Ivy League university receives to trade schools around the country.
“I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!”, Mr. Trump stated in a Truth Social post. Teaching practical skills for certain crafts or professions is the main goal of trade schools.
How Mr. Trump would distribute the funds and if the scholarships originate from Harvard funding that his administration has already stopped were unclear at first.
Following his move last week to prevent Harvard from accepting overseas students and other actions to freeze billions of dollars in federal money for the university because he believes it has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus, Mr. Trump made the new threat.
Following Mr. Trump’s prior attempt to deprive the university of $2.2 billion in government money, the university filed a lawsuit last month, claiming that his action was illegal.
The Trump administration’s attempt to prevent Harvard from accepting international students prompted the university to file a second lawsuit last week.
The president of Harvard, Alan Garber, described it as a “revocation” which “continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.”
Later, the Trump administration was temporarily prevented from stopping Harvard from accepting international students by a federal judge. The White House blasted the decision.
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“The American people elected President Trump – not random local judges with their own liberal agenda – to run the country,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson stated last week. “These unelected judges have no right to stop the Trump Administration from exercising their rightful control over immigration policy and national security policy.”
In his efforts to control Harvard’s policies, including stopping the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and altering its hiring procedures, Mr. Trump has also stated that he intends to remove Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
Additionally, the Trump administration seeks to audit staff and students for “viewpoint diversity.”
In what is believed to be an attempt to pressure them into supporting the Trump administration’s agenda, the White House has also targeted other well-known universities by cutting off federal funding to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University.
