In his most vocal criticism yet of the Trump administration, on X, former president Barack Obama praised Harvard’s rebellion to the White House requests and urged other universities to defy federal attempts to “stifle academic freedom”.
Obama condemned the education department for freezing $2.3B in federal funds to Harvard University, after the Ivy League college was the first elite institution to reject a list of demands from the White House.
The country’s oldest university, Obama wrote, is setting an example for other higher education institutions.
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom” Obama wrote in his post, “while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit”.
His comments came after Harvard decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on alleged antisemitism and civil rights violations. It is the first major US university to defy pressure from the White House to change its policies.
On April 4th, Obama had publicly criticized the Trump Administration and its efforts to reshape the federal government, crackdown on immigration and dissent, intimidating news outlets and the legal establishment. “This is the first time I’ve been speaking publicly for a while,” Obama said during an on-stage interview at Hamilton College. “I’ve been watching for a little bit. Imagine if I had done any of this. It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”
