Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) said President Trump’s cuts to Harvard University’s funding are part of his “outrageous” plan to silence his critics.
Healey joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where she weighed in on the administration’s attacks on the university in her state, which is also her alma mater.
“It’s outrageous,” she said of Trump’s moves to end Harvard’s tax-exempt status. “But it’s part of this continued playbook that Donald Trump has been using, which is to silence critics.”
Harvard is the most recent institution to be drawn into a battle with Trump, following a series of law firms that have struck deals with the administration after being targeted by executive orders and companies pushing for exemptions to his tariff plan.
“Now, he’s going after colleges and universities, using any and all tactics to try to shut them down, to silence them. That’s what Donald Trump is about,” Healey said. “There’s no merit to any of this. And of course, it’s illegal.”
The administration has frozen $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard after the university became the first school to openly reject the administration’s demands to change its policies.
The administration, which has gone after multiple universities under accusations that they have not done enough to counter campus antisemitism, had demanded that Harvard eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies and change its hiring and admission policies, among other things.
Columbia University agreed to similar demands in an attempt to get back $400 million in frozen funding. The school has not had the funding reinstated, however, and has in fact faced further cuts.
Following Harvard’s refusal to implement the demanded changes, Trump has called the school “a joke” and threatened to end its tax-exempt status.
Researchers warn that the funding cuts will have dire effects.
Healey noted that cuts both from Harvard and the National Institutes of Health will impact her state’s research and teaching institutions that examine cures for diseases, treatments and cancer research.
She argued that the administration’s cuts to research will impact the United States’s standing in the medical world. Scientists will now go to other countries to do their work, hurting the U.S. in its leading medical position, Healey said.
“It’s bad for patients, it’s bad for science, and it’s really bad for American competitiveness,” she said.
“There’s a reason this country has led the world, remember, and it’s because we’ve invested in science and innovation for decades,” Healey added.
