Ex-Harvard president Lawrence Summers says Trump's endgame is getting universities to "bend the knee" [View all]
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Source: CBS News
May 4, 2025 / 9:17 AM EDT
On college campuses, spring is often a sunny time: finals are finished, and commencement festivities begin. But at some schools, there is now crisis. President Trump is ramping up an extraordinary pressure campaign on higher education, especially on universities he has vilified, including Harvard University. A lot is on the line: billions in research funds, the status of foreign students, the future of admissions, and academic freedom.
On Thursday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller announced, "Universities are on notice … the clearest example that we're all familiar with, of course, being Harvard, which is engaged in repeated systemic and sustained violations." Harvard, which has had more than $2 billion in grants frozen, is fighting back.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, praised the university, saying, "I want to applaud Harvard University for having the guts to stand up to them." Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers repeated that sentiment: "I'm very proud of the university that I once led and still teach," he said.
Summers sees a confrontation playing out over American values: "If Harvard, America's richest university, America's university that had produced the most presidents, if Harvard couldn't stand up, nobody else could." I asked, "What's President Trump's endgame with Harvard?" "I think his endgame is to try to get the university to bend the knee," Summers said.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-harvard-president-lawrence-summers-says-trumps-endgame-is-getting-universities-to-bend-the-knee/
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