‘Grow up’: Donald Trump criticised as launches fresh attack on Harvard University

US President Donald Trump has been told to "grow up", as he continues to criticise Harvard University's enrolment of international students.

As a reminder, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) threatened to strip Harvard of its ability to enrol international students back in April, warning it would do so if the university did not share information about students’ disciplinary records and their involvement in protests.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem then followed through with the threat on Thursday, removing the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program or SEVP certification and claiming the organisation is “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.

In response, Harvard noted it did respond to DHS’ requests for information “as required by law”, and sued the Trump administration over the revocation, which the lawsuit describes as a “blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act”.

It also addressed the Trump administration’s allegation of “fostering antisemitism” on its campus by saying Harvard “made substantial changes aimed at ensuring its campus is safe, fair, and welcoming to Jewish and Israeli students” following the October 7 attack.

“Harvard has adopted new accountability procedures and clarified policies; imposed meaningful discipline for those who have violated applicable policies; enhanced programs designed to address bias and promote ideological diversity and civil discourse; hired staff to support these programs and impacted students; and enhanced safety and security measures,” it reads.

The lawsuit also attacks a letter from DHS – in which the department said the Trump administration will “enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses” – and says it “leaves no doubt that the revocation [of SEVP] is part of DHS’s campaign to coerce Harvard into surrendering it First Amendment rights”.

“Because the Administration perceives that members of Harvard’s community have the wrong viewpoints, Harvard will be punished until it alters its viewpoints to satisfy the Administration’s demands,” it adds.

And in a message sent to the university’s community – also on Friday - President Alan Garber wrote: “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.”

US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs ended up issuing a temporary restraining order on Friday blocking DHS’ revocation of SEVP certification.

Now, in a post to his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump launched a fresh attack on Harvard, writing: “Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to. Nobody told us that!

“We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming.

“We want those names and countries. Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!”

And so, as the conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard escalates, social media users have speculated on other, less public reasons why the president is going after the university, with some suggesting it may be because his predecessor, Barack Obama, is a graduate:

Many others, though, have claimed Trump’s son Barron was rejected from the institution:

“It’s as simple as this. Barron was rejected by Harvard. Malia got in,” wrote one Twitter/X account:

Another commented that all of this was happening “because Barron Trump wasn’t accepted to Harvard”:

And a third called on Harvard to release Barron’s “rejection letter”:

However, fact-checking website Snopes said in an article in April that there is “no evidence that [Stanford, Harvard and Columbia] rejected Barron Trump, a New York University student”.

Indy100 has approached Harvard University for comment.

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