Once more, President Donald Trump has his sights set on Harvard University. This time, he is threatening to take an extra $3 billion in government grant money away from the prestigious Ivy League school. Trump says the money would be better used to help U.S. trade schools, which he says are more important for American jobs and the economy.
This new action would take away more than twice as much government money as was already taken away from Harvard. This comes after $2.2 billion was taken away because of antisemitism claims on campus. The White House is still looking into these claims, but Harvard has always denied them, saying that the actions of the government were “illegal” and had no base in fact.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked Harvard for a lot of information about its foreign students, which made things very tense between Trump’s government and the school. DHS said they needed the information to look at the risks to national security, but Harvard refused and filed a case that stopped the government’s plan to stop foreign students from enrolling. A federal judge quickly agreed with Harvard and stopped the ban while the case is being heard.
On his social media site Truth Social, Trump criticised Harvard for taking too long to give him the information he asked for, implying that the delay may have been planned. Trump wrote, “Harvard’s best quality is that they looked around and found the best judge (for them!)” “But don’t worry, the government will win in the end!”
Since Republicans often feel strongly about the government going too far, political experts and Republican leaders are keeping a close eye on this. A political expert named Sue O’Connell says that many Republicans may agree with Trump’s view on foreign students at Harvard, but they could speak out against the administration if they think its actions are unfair or illegal.
Trump says that the number of foreign students at Harvard is “too much,” which is what worries him. He recently told reporters, “We have Americans that want to go there and other places, and they can’t go there.” This made it clear that he thinks foreign applicants are beating out American students.
Trump has also said that the need for information on foreign students is for national security reasons, saying that the government needs to know “how many radicalised lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country.” Even though this language is harsh, it has caused a lot of discussion about how to balance safety and academic freedom.
On the other hand, Harvard officials and professors have spoken out in defence of the school’s reputation and independence. William Brooks, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, said that the government’s repeated requests for documents were like getting “demand letter after demand letter with little law cited and fewer facts relied upon.” He said that the government was wrong to go after Harvard without a clear legal reason.
This story is happening at a very bad time for colleges and universities across the country. Many of them depend on foreign students for both tuition money and cultural diversity. The Trump administration’s efforts to limit the number of foreign students at Harvard could become a model for colleges all over the country.
For now, the federal judge’s order to stop the ban on foreign students staying in the U.S. stands, which is good news for Harvard. But now that Trump has said that he might cut grants by $3 billion, the university has to deal with another big problem.
The Trump administration, on the other hand, says that moving money from Harvard to trade schools would be “a great investment… for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” This is part of Trump’s larger push to put vocational education and job training ahead of standard four-year colleges. This is a move that some voters liked because they were worried about getting people ready for work and making the economy more competitive.
As the legal fights drag on and political tensions rise, the Harvard scandal shows how Americans are still fighting over immigration, school funding, and national security.
You can read the official court papers here to learn more about the federal court’s decision to stop Harvard’s ban on foreign students. If you want to know how policies about foreign students are affecting universities across the United States, this in-depth report will help.
“This article was written by Mathew Owen. AI tools were used lightly for grammar and formatting, but the ideas, words, and edits are all mine.”
