Former Harvard president: 'Nothing justifies these attacks, this is authoritarianism'

President Trump has American universities in his sights. Harvard University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, is bearing the brunt. In April, Trump made several demands from universities, threatening to cut their funding if they didn't comply. Student admissions would have to change, and personnel policy would have to be overhauled, for example. When Harvard refused to comply, the president withdrew 2.2 billion dollars in funding.

Now, a federal judge in Massachusetts, the university's home state, has ruled that the president is not allowed to do this. One can only terminate a contract if one party fails to comply with its terms, but that is not the case here.

Trump claims that Harvard is not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus, but that argument is a "smokescreen" for an "ideologically motivated attack on universities," according to the ruling.

Penalty
The court ruled that the government may no longer impose penalty discounts, as this violates not only the legal certainty of institutions but also their freedom of expression. In the US, companies and institutions also have that freedom.

The government will almost certainly appeal the ruling, according to several American media outlets. The ruling is coming too late for some universities anyway. Trump has already forced several of them to their knees by threatening to cut millions of dollars from them.

Extortion
This is a form of extortion, Claudine Gay said on Wednesday afternoon at Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam. According to her, a settlement is not a solution either. "Trump wants Harvard to pay 500 million dollars in ransom, but the amount is arbitrary. We are living in disturbing times," she added.

Claudine Gay opened the academic year at Nias, a research institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), on Wednesday. Her speech avoided any reference to Trump, but she was critical of him in a Q&A session afterwards. She criticised the very fact that Harvard is having to negotiate with Trump at all. "This is disappointing for the people who look up to Harvard."

This was one of her first public appearances since stepping down from the Harvard presidency. She took on the role in July 2023, but resigned six months later under intense pressure. Republicans feel that she did too little to stop protesters chanting "From the river to the sea" on campus. Gay is still a professor of political science at Harvard.

Power grab
She sounded combative in Amsterdam. After her speech, she replied fiercely to the moderator's question about whether universities had brought Trump's attack upon themselves. Had they gone too far with their stance on diversity? "Nothing justifies these attacks. This is authoritarianism," Gay said to loud applause. "They want us to talk about the excesses of the left, when we should be looking at the power grab that is currently underway."

In the US, the judge came to a similar conclusion shortly afterwards. He concluded that Trump's attack on universities has little to do with campus demonstrations and alleged anti-Semitism, "but everything to do with the power and political convictions of the government".