Trump slams Harvard University as funding fight heads to court

US President Donald Trump on Thursday bashed Harvard as an "Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution," as the prestigious university battles his administration's funding freeze in court.

The latest outburst from Trump comes as his administration cracks down on US universities on several fronts, alleging widespread anti-Semitism, anti-white bias, and the promotion of "gender ideology" by protecting trans students.

The administration has threatened several top-tier universities with funding freezes and other punishments, prompting concerns over declining academic freedom.

It has also moved to revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in the protests, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel provoked the war.

Harvard, which has seen billions in federal funding frozen after it rejected wide-ranging government oversight, filed suit against the Trump administration on Monday.

"The place is a Liberal mess," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, also complaining that the university has admitted students "from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart."

His broadside came a day after he issued an executive order targeting higher education, upending how federal authorities decide which universities and colleges can access billions of dollars from certain grants and student loans.

The executive order seeks to clamp down on what Trump brands "unlawful discrimination" -- that is any measures that seek to promote the representation of "racial and ethnic minority individuals."

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Trump could not withhold funds from public schools that operate equality and diversity policies which have been a particular target of the president.

The ruling issued in New Hampshire does not apply across the board but instead to the largest US teacher union, the National Education Association (NEA), and the Center for Black Educator Development (CBED) non-profit which promotes the recruitment of Black teachers.

The ruling will apply in schools employing members of the NEA, or contracting with the CBED.

- Anti-Semitism claims -

Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.

The administration claims that protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.

Several Jewish lawmakers accused Trump on Thursday of weaponizing anti-Semitism to attack universities for his own ends.

"We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of anti-Semitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community's real concerns about anti-Semitism to undermine democratic norms and rights," the Democratic senators, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, wrote in a joint letter.

Many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time, with the Cambridge-based institution placing 23 students on probation and denying degrees to 12 others, according to protest organizers.

Trump's claims about diversity tap into long-standing conservative complaints that US university campuses are too liberal, shutting out right-wing voices and favoring minorities.

In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over the inner workings of the country's oldest and wealthiest university -- and one of the most respected educational and research institutions in the world.

Professor Kirsten Weld, president of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), told AFP "this is an increasingly autocratic, authoritarian government that is trying to dismantle not just our universities, but the higher education sector as a whole."