Former Harvard University President Larry Summers assailed President Donald Trump over his deepening attacks on the school, slamming a “wildly extralegal” federal funding freeze earlier this week and warning of government “tyranny.”
“This is not an isolated thing, what’s being done to Harvard,” Summers said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Television. “This is part of a broad and sweeping effort to suppress institutions that challenge the presidential administration.”
Trump is in an escalating standoff with Harvard after the government froze $2.2 billion in federal grants for the school this week. The president went on to threaten Harvard’s tax-exempt status and on Wednesday accused the school of hiring “radical left” faculty. Saying Harvard “can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning,” the president said it should no longer receive federal funds.
The Trump administration, which has accused Harvard of mishandling antisemitism on campus, stepped up its demands last week by calling for changes to admissions and hiring practices, among other requirements. Harvard President Alan Garber rejected the terms this week, saying they made clear that the government’s intention “is not to work with us to address antisemitism.”
While Summers said Harvard still needs to do more to combat prejudice against Jews and expand intellectual diversity, he applauded the institution’s effort to stand up to Trump.
“Universities have made some very serious mistakes, and yes, they should be pressured and pressured with escalating strength to change that,” said Summers, a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV. “But for the president of the United States to be calling for changing the tax status of his adversaries, this is new and I believe authoritarian and a real question about our democracy.”
A former U.S. Treasury secretary, Summers said he hoped Harvard would find ways to maintain important research in the face of the federal funding cut, warning of long-term damage from a protracted battle between universities and the Trump administration.
“If the U.S. government goes to war with our great universities, it means a sharp reduction in the kind of scientific progress that has caused the United States to be the envy of the world,” he said. “It means the end of efforts at cures to diseases like cancer and diabetes. It means a substantial risk to our national security, because one of our great national assets has been our capacity for innovation.”
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is the oldest and richest U.S. university. It boasts a $53 billion endowment.
“Harvard should not go interjecting itself into politics,” Summers said. But “if an institution like Harvard cannot resist tyranny when applied to it,” he said, “then who can?”