Trump vs. US universities: a clash of cultures?
The dispute between President Trump and elite US universities continues to escalate: after accusing them of failing to take sufficient action against pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Trump threatened to cut funding and ban Harvard from accepting foreign students. The latter has been temporarily blocked by a court injunction. Commentators examine the root causes of the row.
Campaign against cosmopolitanism
The president is harming his own country's interests by freezing funds to universities, Der Standard stresses:
“Trump is also doing his own voters a disservice: foreign students who manage to gain admission to an Ivy League university are beacons of hope for future research breakthroughs and entrepreneurial success. By expelling them, he undermines the basis for future US prosperity. ... It's no coincidence that Harvard has been targeted - the university symbolises many of the things Trump feels threatened by: cosmopolitanism, critical thinking, global cooperation and intellectual freedom.”
Not just an imaginary threat
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung voices understanding for US president's actions against Harvard:
“Trump is fighting Harvard as if this were a feud. And he is fighting as ruthlessly as we have come to expect from him. Once again, we don't know whether this is just another absurd threat that will be withdrawn later on. But Trump is not fighting against an chimaera but against a problem that can't just be talked out of the world: when students are menaced because they are Jewish or hold an opinion that the majority doesn't like, there is no freedom. And when research and teaching descend into activism there can no longer be any talk of this being science.”
Over everyone's head
Sergey Vakulenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, also sees Israeli students as victims in a Facebook post picked up by Echo:
“Trump has taken Harvard to task in the name of fighting antisemitism. The way he has gone about this is interesting - revoking the student visas of all foreign students in one fell swoop. ... It's interesting to see how many Israeli students have left Harvard or other American universities as a result of the protests. I imagine some of them did it because they felt uncomfortable or threatened. But now Trump has decided for all Israelis in one fell swoop.”
Self-sabotage
La Libre Belgique comments:
“The attack on foreign students shows a desire to bring Harvard to its knees. ... But in whose interest, apart from ideological squabbling and personal vendettas? Foreign students are a blessing for the university and the local economy. Above all they are an incomparable source of intellectual enrichment for the country. Foregoing their contribution would mean undermining one of the foundations of American excellence: its dominance in the fields of knowledge, science and research. ... And competition has never been as fierce as it is today. One need only look at China's astonishing advances in the space sector or AI to be convinced of this. Does America want to sabotage itself?”