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Trump Makes Fresh Threat Against Harvard as He Tries to Make It Cave

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21.04.2025

Donald Trump is incensed that Harvard University won’t give in to his administration’s draconian demands, and is taking further action against the institution.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night that the White House plans to pull $1 billion in federal funding for Harvard’s health research, which comes after the administration cut $2.2 billion in grants and a $60 million contract with the university last week.

The White House is reportedly upset that the university publicly released a letter that the administration’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism sent it more than a week ago. The task force’s letter had a long list of demands, apparently under the impression that it would simply be a starting point for negotiations. Since the letter’s release, Trump has planned to treat Harvard even more harshly than Columbia University, which lost $400 billion in federal funding despite giving in to the administration’s demands.

Harvard President Alan Garber had written his own letter to the university community, rejecting Trump’s demands. “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,” he wrote.

Trump has already threatened to end the university’s tax-exempt status, which would cost the university millions of dollars, as well as its ability to enroll international students, which make up 27 percent of Harvard’s enrollment. Now the president expects an even more protracted fight with America’s oldest university.

“Instead of grandstanding, Harvard should focus on rebuilding confidence among all students, particularly Jewish students,” a White House spokesperson told the Journal. “The White House remains open to dialogue, but serious changes are needed at Harvard.”

Trump’s attacks on academic freedom echo the right’s long-standing grievances against higher education institutions in America, which it sees as bastions of liberal influence. Last year’s protests at universities across the country against Israel’s brutal war in Gaza incensed supporters of Israel and further drove Republicans to punish any university they perceive as failing to take action. After making an example of Columbia, Trump and his fellow conservatives are expanding their crusade.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen perfectly dismantled Donald Trump’s administration’s argument for ignoring the due process rights of immigrants such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

During an appearance Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Van Hollen was asked to respond to comments from Patty Morin, the mother of Maryland resident Rachel Morin who was raped and killed by a Salvadoran man in 2023, a tragedy that Trump administration officials regularly revisit in their justification of the president’s mass deportation scheme.

Morin had criticized Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador to find Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported in March, during a White House press briefing last week.

“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge, or barely acknowledged, my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother, so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen. Why does that person have more right than I do? Or my daughter?” Morin asked.

Van Hollen responded to Morin’s comments Sunday.

“My heart goes out to the Morin family. They suffered—experienced an unspeakable tragedy in the murder of their daughter, and I said at the time that my heart goes out to the Morin family. And I’m very glad that the killer of Rachel has been convicted in a court of law. That is how we hold guilty people accountable,” Van Hollen said.

“The courts of law are also where people get to have their due process so we don’t unfairly punish people who don’t have criminal records,” Van Hollen continued. “And so, my view is you can crack down and hold guilty people accountable and also respect the due process rights of everybody who is in court. And I am not sure why Abrego Garcia’s rights should be denied based on an awful murder that he had absolutely nothing to do with.”

Van Hollen returned from El Salvador Friday after finally meeting with a “traumatized” Abrego Garcia, and recounted the outrageous lengths the Salvadoran government had gone to to try to mislead the public about its treatment of Abrego Garcia.

The Trump administration has claimed that Abrego Garcia, who has no criminal record, was not only a member of MS-13 but a “top leader” and “engaged in human trafficking,” while only providing thin evidence that he was even affiliated with the group. In fact Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador as the result of an “administrative error.”

In the spirit of Easter, Donald Trump spent Sunday ranting on Truth Social, attacking judges, the left, and former President Joe Biden.

His first Easter address began normally enough, wishing Americans a “very happy Easter” and a day “full of Peace and Joy for all who celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” But within minutes, the president flipped the script and went on a furious rampage against his favorite targets.

“Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country,” he wrote.

“Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our nation to continue, an attack so violent it will never be forgotten!” Trump continued, on par with his

© New Republic