Politics

MAGA supporters 'boycotting' Harvard has become an instant meme

Trump v. Harvard: Administration escalates fight against Ivy League school
Straight Arrow News / VideoElephant

As the clash between Donald Trump and Harvard continues to escalate, MAGA supporters have become the face of a "boycotting" the university meme.

The U.S. General Services Administration sent a letter on Tuesday (May 28) ordering US federal agencies to review and potentially cancel 30 contracts (across nine agencies) with Harvard, estimated to be worth $100 million, according to an anonymous senior official.

Rather than stopping immediately, any vital agency contracts are recommended to plan a transition to a vendor other than Harvard, as per the letter, first reported by The New York Times.

It comes after the oldest and richest US university recently had $2.6 billion in federal research grants cancelled by the government after it refused to cave into policy change demands from the Trump administration.

Trump has openly criticised Harvard, accusing the Ivy League school of being a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.

(Harvard's president, Alan Garber, apologised last month after internal reports into antisemitic and anti-Muslim prejudice were recently released.

"I'm sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community," Dr Garber said, and added that "Harvard cannot - and will not - abide bigotry.")

Trump's loyal MAGA supporters similarly share his views, and it's led to people on the other side of the political spectrum to make memes about MAGA "boycotting" Harvard.

Here are some viral examples:


"They're boycotting Harvard," another person said, posting a photo of MAGA supporters.



A third person posted, "MAGA boycotting Harvard is like me saying I am boycotting Ferrari."


"MAGA boycotting Harvard is like Lara Trump boycotting the Grammys," a fourth person commented.


On April 21, the university filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing it of attempting to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard".

Last week, the Trump administration attempted to revoke Harvard's ability to enrol international students - that's around 6,800 students make up about 27 per cent of Harvard's intake, but this was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Boston on Friday (May 23) with the next hearing set to take place on May 29.

On Monday (May 26), the president took to Truth Social, to slam Harvard once more and accused the university of stalling after he demanded a list of all its foreign students.

“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote.

He also shared how he's thinking about taking $3 billion in federal funding from Harvard and giving it to trade schools instead, but gave no further details on specific grants and schools.

“I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,” Trump said. “What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!”

Elsewhere, Trump threatens Gavin Newsom over trans high school athlete, and Trump's tariffs are making tourists stay away from the US.

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