THis week, the oldest (and richest) American educational institution, did what one of his peers could not: It disregarded the Trump administration.
Harvard’s President Alan Garber issued a challenging statement on Monday stating that the university would not accept a list of claims from the Trump administration, which he said, amounts to a federal takeover of the institution.
Just as with other universities, the Trump administration demanded that the university work with federal agencies working on the prosecution, and in the case of foreign-born students, who are aimed at deportation, university students who practice a wide range of activities as opposed to the siege of the Israeli government in Gaza. It would also have forced Harvard to end diversity -based rental policies.
A letter sent in response to the government was himself filled with subtle Jabs. This was signed by two well -known faces: Robert Hur, the former justice lawyer who supervised Joe Biden’s handling of classified material, and William Burck, outside ethical lawyer for the Trump organization.
Furthermore, the couple wrote it “[n]Either Harvard, nor any other private university, may allow him to be taken over by the federal government ” – a remark that can be clearly seen as disapprovingly comments at Ivy League member Columbia University to accept the greasy policy changes claimed by the White House.
“No government – regardless of which party is in power – may determine what private universities can learn,” Harvard’s president wrote.
So far, Harvard is unaware in the midst of the retaliation of the Trump administration: about $ 2.2 billion in various awards affecting the university.
A number of other colleges and associations took another step on Tuesday and filed a case against the US Department of Energy aimed at stopping the awards led by the Doge. The group contains the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University, and wrote in court filing that the implemented cuts to investigate funding would be “devastating”. Students across the country reported the reversal of the admission and research program attacks of Graduate School in the wake of cuts to a wealth of federal agencies.
The framework of resistance begins to form. And one of the biggest names in democratic politics is to throw himself behind it.
Barack Obama, the last Democratic President who was re-elected, backed up his alma mater on Twitter: “Harvard set an example for other higher-ED institutions-who rejected an illegal and ham-hand effort to suffocate academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students can benefit from Harvard, a serious debate, a serious debate.
“Let’s hope that other institutions follow,” he added.
Obama, who was one of the highest profile that would decrease Joe Biden from the Democratic ticket in 2024, remains one of the most influential voices of the Democratic Party. His statement is likely to be a shout for a party that indicates polling after the poll (and the FEC report after FEC report) that voters believe is not energetic enough to build up the resistance.
He also emerged from the 2024 election, which seems much more provisional than his one -time mate, which most insiders now agree, is enveloped in a careful sphere of advisors and close family members who protected the president during the election season from signs of his growing unpopularity.
But he is not the only Democrat who finds a voice, as the party is considering what “Resistance 2.0” looks like, and he is probably not the most effective either. It seems that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has shaken a large part of the malicious malice that affected all corners of their large tent of their coalition. Now its members are hammering Republicans in their hometowns across the country.
Outside West is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now on the side of Senator Bernie Sanders, while the two left icons hit a red state to the red state, and drew staggering crowds day after day. The couple was in Nampa on Monday night, Idaho, and worked out a crowd that ranged some estimates (including seats) upwards of 15,000. The member of the ‘group’ not only takes out her voice-she builds a political machine and on Tuesday reported a jaw amount for the first quarter of 2025 more than $ 9.6 million.
In the East, John Fetterman’s old rival Conor Lamb still stops what the former Rep John Lewis would probably call “good trouble” in Pennsylvania. The former congressman had an empty chairman city event in a GOP district outside Penn State University in March and will do so again on Wednesday. This time he does this in Pittsburgh – Fetterman’s backyard – and calls the senator directly.
“Look forward to this Wednesday,” Lamb wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Perhaps our senators – who both live within a few minutes of driving force of this event – will outline and address the recent votes they plan to do about Trump’s economic downturn and his resistance to the Supreme Court.”
With new polls coming out that Donald Trump’s approval is taking a serious slide amid economic instability produced by his on-weather tariff plan, Democrats can eventually find their foot. Will they do something about it?
