Does the President Want to Fix Harvard or Destroy It?

I love Riley, but I don't think he understands the ideological war that's being fought here. BTW, I'm not endorsing any of this, simply describing what's going down.

First, Trump and many in the GOP blame elite higher education for minting a woke progressive incubator that has morphed into the modern-day Democratic Party. They perceive that ideology to be their enemy and a subversive force trying to undermine the US.

What Voldemort wants and has received from Penn and Columbia is a kiss of his ring and assurances to do two things. Stop discriminating against folks who "aren't minorities" in their admission practices and do the same in promoting professorial staff. He also wants these schools to provide the same ops for conservative-leaning professors and their left-leaning brethren. They've bowed to him and are largely being left alone. Harvard isn't and they will likely get bludgeoned until they cry uncle and fire their leadership.

Mr Riley forgets one other important thing. Last time I checked, the US Constitution doesn't guarantee federal funding to elite private universities. Nor have most Americans voted to appropriate those funds.

Who says Harvard is or isn't due massive funding from US taxpayers? That's open to debate. For those who think the only way to further science is for universities to hire scientists, I'd like to point out that the majority of AI advancement now is handled in the private sector, which is perfectly capable of hiring PhDs. In fact, the US Gov always has the option to spend money in that space and avoid the whopping 85% tariff Harvard charges on all Fed grants to fund their "overhead".

Does the President Want to Fix Harvard or Destroy It?

His actions against foreign students and research grants have little to do with students’ civil rights.

By Jason L. Riley

May 27, 2025 5:01 pm ET

Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass. Photo: Ziyu Julian Zhu/Zuma Press

Donald Trump has made the Harvard man his whipping boy, and academia certainly had it coming. Still, what is the president’s objective?

The administration announced Tuesday that it is seeking to cancel all remaining federal contracts with the school, which are worth an estimated $100 million. That’s on top of the billions of dollars in grants to Harvard that Mr. Trump has already frozen. He’s also threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status and wants to increase the levy on its $53 billion endowment.

In a social-media post on Memorial Day, the president mused about rescinding $3 billion in grant money awarded to Harvard for scientific and engineering research and redirecting it to trade schools. But to what end? Does Mr. Trump think trade schools have the infrastructure and resources to do the research done at Harvard?

The president is upset that Harvard and other elite institutions didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students on their campuses who were being harassed and intimidated by anti-Israel demonstrators. He’s likewise annoyed by the leftward political tilt of academia, where social-justice advocacy is dominant and competing perspectives are discouraged and seldom engaged. Those are fair criticisms, but they don’t give Mr. Trump license to trample over academic freedom and First Amendment rights, or to tell private universities whom they can hire and what they can teach.

Mr. Trump’s recent move to bar Harvard from enrolling foreign students is as shortsighted and counterproductive as his effort to disrupt research projects. Citing a need to protect Jewish students, the Department of Homeland Security announced last week that Harvard is losing its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows international students to attend U.S. colleges. “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.

A federal judge has issued a restraining order that temporarily halts the administration’s foreign-student ban, and anyone who cares about higher education should hope the White House drops the issue. Mr. Trump accuses Harvard of withholding the names of its international students. “They refuse to tell us who the people are,” he told reporters. But the federal government already has that information.

As the Harvard Crimson explained, schools that accept students on foreign visas “report extensive records to the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System database, including names, places of birth, and countries of origin.” The administration wants additional information on foreign students, including protest activities, but Harvard says that goes beyond what the law requires and raises privacy concerns.

The problem is that the government’s demands are overly broad and almost certainly pretextual. Compliance is near-impossible because the administration has already determined that Harvard is to be punished. What’s less clear is what Mr. Trump hopes to accomplish by inflicting as much pain as possible on one of the world’s most prestigious universities. Is the goal to fix what’s wrong with higher education—and much needs fixing—or to destroy it?

Mr. Trump likes to talk about his crackdown on illegal immigration, and he deserves high praise for fulfilling his campaign promise to restore order on the southern border. The president also complains, however, about companies that hire foreign nationals who are here lawfully, suggesting that he has a problem with immigrant workers regardless of their legal status.

Citing a memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Politico reported Tuesday that the administration might soon require “all foreign students applying to study in the United States to undergo social media vetting.” In preparation, it is “ordering U.S. embassies and consular sections to pause scheduling new interviews for such student visa applicants.” For the White House, banning foreign students could be another way to reduce legal immigration.

If that’s the goal, Mr. Trump should understand the trade-offs. One of the reasons that U.S. higher education is the gold standard is the presence of international students. A disproportionately high number of doctorates at American universities are awarded to foreign students—especially in the more demanding fields of science, mathematics and engineering. “International students accounted for more than 40 percent of the roughly 500,000 doctoral degrees awarded by U.S. universities between 2000 and 2019,” according to the Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Mumbai and Beijing—by way of Harvard and other elite schools—supply the talent that keeps our high-tech sector competitive. These are among the best minds in the world, and they want to live and work in America. They boost employment and productivity. They generate wealth. Nothing is gained by forcing our leading universities to turn them away.