Harvard: Trump must justify the 2.6 billion frost

The duel between Donald Trump and the University of Harvard moved to the judicial arena on Monday where a judge asked the US administration to justify the frost of more than 2.6 billion dollars in research grants at the prestigious university.

Since his return to Maison Blanche last January, Donald Trump accuses the dean of American universities of serving as a breeding ground for the “woke” ideology and of not having sufficiently protected his Jewish or Israeli students during demonstrations on the campus for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. In retaliation, the Trump government has withdrawn from Harvard just over 2.6 billion dollars in federal subsidies, including in the health field, and revoked its Sevis certification, the main system by which foreign students are authorized to study in the United States.

Harvard said he had taken measures to ensure that Jewish or Israeli students and staff feel excluded, or intimidated on the campus, while arguing that measures of the federal government “threatened” freedoms of expression and academic and were thus contrary to the American Constitution.
In his complaint before judge Allison Burroughs, Harvard accuses the Trump administration of using federal funds as a “lever” to try to “control” the decision -making of the university.

Lawyers on the two camps presented their arguments on Monday before judge Burroughs who pressed the government of questions about his decision to freeze these subsidies at Harvard, according to American media. Without waiting for the decision, the American president castigated the judge. The Harvard affair has just been presented before a judge “named by Obama”, complained Donald Trump on his Truth Social network. “It is a total disaster, and I say it before I even heard its decision,” he wrote, accusing the university “of being anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-American.”

In parallel, associations of professors of American universities, notably Harvard, asked another Massachusetts judge on Monday to recognize that the United States government has implemented a “policy of expulsions based on ideology” contrary to the first amendment of the Constitution which protects freedom of expression.

For these associations, the arrests of foreign students with a view to their expulsion, such as that of the Propaletinian activist of Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil, or the Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk, aim to muzzle the voices against the Israeli war in Gaza and the defense of the Palestinians, and weaken public debate.

The American government used an injunction at the beginning of the month to try to obtain internal “documents” from Harvard University on international students suspected of having participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus.

Questioned by AFP, Harvard’s management described “unjustified” the request of the Trump government as an “reprisals” campaign against a university which “defends” both its students and its fundamental principles.