Harvard president delivers ‘perfect clapback’ to Trump attacks at commencement ceremony

Graduation ceremonies are in full swing in the US, and following President Donald Trump’s attacks on Harvard University and its enrolment of international students, the Massachusetts institution’s commencement day on Thursday was always going to be one to watch, to see if its president Alan Garber would address the ongoing dispute.

And he did.

Garber told students: “To the class of 2025, from down the street, across the country and around the world. Around the world, as it should be.”

On Monday this week, Trump issued renewed calls for Harvard to release its “foreign student lists” so his administration could find out “how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country”.

Writing on Truth Social, he said: “Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason! The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!”

His comments about a judge came after US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order last week blocking the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) revocation of the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification.

On Thursday, Burroughs said she plans to order the DHS and State Department not to make any changes to Harvard’s student visa program as she considers a preliminary injunction, with the aforementioned restraining order remaining in place.

Harvard has sued the DHS over the revocation of its SEVP certification, and in a message sent to the university’s community last week, Garber said: “The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body.

“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action. It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfil their dreams.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has previously alleged the university is “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.

Garber’s latest clapback at Thursday’s commencement ceremony has since been praised online:

“Don’t cave to bullies,” wrote another user:

And a third described it as a “perfect clapback” featuring “all the things Trump hates”:

And it’s not the only graduation ceremony to make headlines in recent weeks, as Republican commentator Riley Gaines attacked Kermit the Frog for addressing Maryland graduates (yes, really), and Trump faced criticism for breaking a key tradition when he attended an event at West Point.

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