Trump and Harvard

[TizerorFizz]

Has anyone seen that Trump is trying to bully Harvard over them not accepting his demands which would remove academic independence? He is removing $2bn funding and tax exemp status. They do have a $50bn endowment but Trump is trying to get them to agree to his demands. How worried is everyone by this? Sounds outrageous to me.

Very interesting. Many top private schools are going global to capture a wider market, so I should imagine it is possible.

Would be a clever way of not having to abide the ridiculous laws being bought in in one country if they did research and published in another.

Where does that happen?

Oh! Turns out it wasn't such a stupid question!

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/14/us/mohsen-mahdawi-columbia-university-trump/index.html

There are a good few students being detained and threatened with deportation.

That’s a guy on a student visa being deported for breaking his visa conditions for openly supporting terrorism. He’s not being detained without trial at all.

I don't know the specifics of what he's done, but criticising Israel's actions is not terrorism. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has just protested too.

I think the world has given up trying to understand Trump Rationale and new laws/trade tariffs etc. It will all change in a day or two anyway. I couldn't live like that personally!

The New York Times is reporting that the Treasury Dept has directed the Internal Revenue Service to analyse Harvard’s tax exempt status, and that plans for this had been hatched before Trump posted about it on social media.

An investigation ordered by Treasury is technically legal, even if it is a fig leaf.

If Harvard’s tax status is changed they can challenge this in court. The article says they would be very likely to prevail.

Scary and repulsive in equal measure

PS US tax law treats large charitable donations much more favourably than UK tax law: they are essentially deducted from your income before your taxable income is computed (for Federal income tax, the big one).

The fear is that without the tax incentive donations will dry up. That’s why this is such a cudgel

Politicians raiding educational services for tax £ should always be a sign of trouble - Starmer seems to have given him ideas.

If Harvards charitable status is removed, does that then remove it for all universities though ? Can Trump single out Harvard ?

Yes, and the other fear is that the president weaponising the IRS turns it into a tool that could be used against anyone he deems an enemy, including private individuals.

There may have been some moves in that direction in his first administration, although that's conjecture - albeit conjecture underpinned by statistics.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/07/politics/irs-audits-comey-mccabe-what-matters/index.html

It certainly breaches the dam. Apparently the argument would likely be along the lines that Harvard is too overtly political or profit orientated to maintain its status as a charity.

While it is the best endowed university, there are others with 11 figure endowments and then on dow, so wealth is a slippery slope. Besides, Trump generally likes wealth.

It is clear that Trump is angry about Harvard’s liberal values so probably the claim would be that ‘ practicing politics’ is incompatible with charitable status. Most universities would be vulnerable and it is highly subjective.

Posted prematurely.

This is an evil stroke of genius because it permits the government to cherry pick, at least at first glance

The NY Times is now reporting that the Dept of Homeland Security is demanding academic records of all Harvard students on nonimmigrant visas. This is allegedly to ensure that students are compliant with visa regulations.

Harvard is to respond by 30 April and may lose permission to enrol international students if it does not. I have not seen any lawyerly views on their chances of failing to comply and winning this one in court.

The only slight good news is that Harvard does not enrol many wealthy international students; it provides significant financial aid to most of them. Harvard’s financial profile might improve if it was restricted to American students.

This is truly evil.

If ever there was an argument for Harvard to open up a campus overseas...
Does back up the fears of everyone thinking of sending DC over to study though. I certainly wouldn't!

Hardly “land of the free” any more.

He has J D Vance waiting not so quietly in the wings

Freedom of thought at universities is so crucial in society for so many reasons. Erdogan in Turkey also harasses, detains, and sacks academics, and in Orban in Hungary too. Trump has many sources to draw on.
The harassment and detention of students is particularly despicable.

"Land of the free" is a bit like "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité": repeated so often that citizens believe the mantra while non-citizens are non-plussed by the deep state bureaucracy and regulation that so clearly favours the haves over the have nots and a "left" that is so confused at the weight and complexity of injustices it wishes to correct that it went down a rabbit hole years ago.

While I am no fan of Trump, US "progressive" (for want of a better word) campus politics are insane and universities have only themselves to blame for letting unacceptable targeting (eg anti-Semitism) spiral out of control, hence leaving themselves wide-open to political interference.

@Ceramiq That’s still not an issue that involves many students though. Of course universities need to deal with this but we didn’t deal with issues at Sussex either. Obviously there are lines that free speech should not cross but we need students of all types having a voice. I would not want Jewish students being vile to non Jewish students either over Gaza. Respect goes a long way. However government interference wasn’t really about this. Academic interference and withholding money is akin to blackmail.

Yes, I know land of the free is a cliche.

@TizerorFizz "That’s still not an issue that involves many students though." What are you referring to?

That argument - that universities have left themselves open to political interference - would carry more weight if the President and many of those in the administration weren't openly consorting, and aligning themselves, with people who are openly anti-semitic, proponents of the great replacement theory, and promoters of anti-semitic conspiracy theories.

No-one is claiming Trump is rational. Both the American right and American left lost sight of reality a long time ago, hence vulnerability to all forms of irrational behaviour.