{"id":1113,"date":"2025-04-15T15:56:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2025-04-16T22:49:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T22:49:20","slug":"obama-touts-harvards-rejection-of-trumps-ham-handed-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/obama-touts-harvards-rejection-of-trumps-ham-handed-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama touts Harvard's rejection of Trump's 'ham-handed' demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former President Obama on Monday touted Harvard University\u2019s rejection of what<\/a> he called \u201cham-handed\u201d demands from President Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions \u2013 rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,\u201d Obama said in a post on social platform X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hope other institutions follow suit,\u201d the former president, who graduated from<\/a> Harvard Law School in 1991, added in the post.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Trump administration demanded that Harvard change multiple policies \u2014 including those around protesting and diversity, equity and inclusion programs \u2014 so that it can hold on to its federal funding. On Monday, the school shot down the demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo government \u2014 regardless of which party is in power \u2014 should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,\u201d Harvard President Alan Garber said in a Monday message<\/a> to the Harvard community.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also offered praise to Harvard<\/a> in a post Monday on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to Harvard for refusing to relinquish its constitutional rights to Trump\u2019s authoritarianism. Other universities should follow their lead. And instead of doing pro bono work for Trump, cowardly law firms should be defending those who believe in the rule of law,\u201d Sanders said in his post.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump escalated the feud when he floated taking away<\/a> the university\u2019s tax-exempt status.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired\/supporting \u2018Sickness?’\u201d Trump said on his Truth Social platform. \u201cRemember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!\u201d<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement to The Hill, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said the president \u201cis working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard\u2019s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvard or any institution that wishes to violate Title VI is, by law, not eligible for federal funding,\u201d Fields added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Obama on Monday touted Harvard University\u2019s rejection of what he called \u201cham-handed\u201d demands from President Trump\u2019s administration. \u201cHarvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions \u2013 rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}