Former President Donald Trump promised to end tax advantages from universities that promote anti-Semitism if elected following recent controversial comments from heads of schools that sparked public outcry across the nation.
“We’re going to take away the tax advantages and grants. We’re going to take away their endowments,” he said. “They will pay us billions and billions of dollars for the terror they have unleashed into our once-great country.”
During a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism that surged following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas terrorist group that kicked off a war in Gaza, the presidents of top universities Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) avoided giving a clear answer when asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) if calling for the genocide of Jews violates their schools’ rules.
Talking with the crowd, President Trump noted that the ideology of Marxists and fascists has “taken over our universities.”
“They’ve destroyed the reputations of once highly respected schools like Harvard, MIT, Colombia, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, the great Wharton School of Finance,” said President Trump, who is himself a graduate of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The 45th president accused these universities of trying to “indoctrinate our youth and bring censorship and anti-Semitism to our campuses.”
Cheers also erupted when he pledged that “on day one” of his second term, he would also end funding to any school pushing the Marxist “critical race theory” and “gender theory.”
Removing ‘Marxist Maniacs and Lunatics’ From Colleges
This is not the first time President Trump has mentioned the plight of education in the present day. In a promotional video in May, he promised to get “anti-American insanity out of” U.S. schools and reclaim America’s educational institutions from the grip of the “radical left.”“I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination,” he said. “And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of ‘equity’ will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
He also highlighted the issue of student debt due to sky-high tuition fees, which which continue to increase, while “academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth.”
He criticized the accreditors—who are supposed to make sure that schools are not ripping off students—for having “failed totally” at their jobs.
“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” he added.
President Trump also said he wanted to impose real standards on American higher education institutions, including defending the American tradition and Western civilization, removing “Marxist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ bureaucrats,” and protecting free speech.
