Trump on Harvard: ‘They’re Getting Their Ass Kicked’
President Donald Trump said that Harvard University is “getting their ass kicked” in their fight with the federal government.
Trump’s comments came in the Oval Office, a day after the administration launched a government-wide review of Harvard contracts for termination, as the federal government says the university has engaged in racial discrimination in admissions and other areas.
“Harvard’s got to behave themselves,” Trump said Wednesday. “Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper.”
Trump added that he is “looking out for Harvard” and wants to see the university restored to greatness.
“How could it be great when you have Harvard announced two weeks ago that they’re going to teach remedial mathematics; remedial, meaning, they’re going to teach low-grade mathematics, like two plus two is four,” Trump said.
“How did these people get into Harvard if they can’t… do basic mathematics? How did they do it?” he added.
Trump reiterated he does not want to harm Harvard, but contrasted the university’s combativeness with Columbia University, which has worked in coordination with the adminsitration.
“Harvard has to understand the last thing I want to do is hurt them. They’re hurting themselves. They’re fighting,” he said.
“Columbia has been really, and they were very, very bad what they’ve done, very anti-Semitic and lots of other things, but they’re working with us on finding a solution, and, you know, they’re taken off that hot seat,” he added.
“But Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their ass kicked,” Trump observed.
Trump on Wednesday also suggested that Harvard put a cap on the number of foreign students it accepts, as Breitbart News noted.
“I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent, not 31 percent,” Trump said. “We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”
The comments came after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said last week it would be blocking the university from enrolling foreign students to hold the institution “accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” as DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explained.
The announcement came as Harvard refused to provide DHS with foreign students’ criminal and misconduct records.
Obama-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Allison Dale Burroughs ruled against the DHS’s efforts to block foreign admissions after the school challenged the policy.
