Former President Barack Obama praised Harvard University for resisting pressure from the Trump administration to comply with “unlawful demands” as the school faces a funding freeze, per ABC News.
On Monday (April 14), Harvard University said that it was declining to follow a series of demands from the Trump administration related to its alleged inaction on antisemitism. The administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism then announced a multibillion-dollar freeze on funding ot the university.
Obama, a Harvard Law School alum, praised the university for resisting the Trump administration’s demands.
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” Obama wrote Monday on X. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
This isn’t the first time Obama has called attention to the White House’s intimidation tactics against universities.
“I don’t think what we just witnessed in terms of economic policy and tariffs is going to be good for America, but that’s a specific policy. I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,” Obama said during a recent appearance at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
“If you are a university, you may have to figure out, are we in fact doing things right? Have we in fact violated our own values, our own code, violated the law in some fashion? If not and you’re just being intimidated, well, you should be able to say, that’s why we got this big endowment,” he added.
On Tuesday (April 15), Trump doubled down on the funding freeze and called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “wants to see Harvard apologize, and Harvard should apologize for the egregious antisemitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students.”
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