Here Is All the Science at Risk in Trump’s Clash With Harvard
New York TimesJUN 26
Trump Admin Subpoenas Harvard Over Foreign Student Records
Above: The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library on Harvard College's campus on June 5, 2025. Image copyright: Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The Spin
Republican narrative
These subpoenas are more than justified given Harvard's egregious antisemitism and legal violations. Jewish students face harassment, vandalism, and exclusion, with 75% feeling unsafe sharing their views. Harvard's partisan faculty, lacking conservative voices, also betrays academic freedom and its motto, Veritas. Harvard will continue to forfeit its right to government grants until it agrees to fix these issues.
Democratic narrative
Harvard must not bow to this tyrannical overreach by the DHS. The subpoena threatens academic freedom and critical research, with billions in grants cut, jeopardizing studies on opioid treatment, cancer, and regeneration. Harvard's efforts to address antisemitism show commitment, not indifference, and capitulating to Trump's extortion risks further demands, which will erode the Veritas motto, not strengthen it.
Cynical narrative
Trump is using the same DEI tactics typically found on the left to now go after critics of a foreign country, likely due to pressure from billionaire donors who, instead of wanting an end to identity politics, want Israeli interests included. These elites had no issue with Harvard's divisive culture until the pro-Palestine movement blew up, and the only students who suffered were innocent Americans who had no representation in government or academia.