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.
“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 and said it “can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning.”
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. 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.”
Summers, a former US Treasury Secretary, 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 US 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.
While Summers said Harvard still needs to do more to combat prejudice against Jews and expand intellectual diversity, he applauded the university’s effort to stand up to Trump. Harvard is the oldest and richest US university, with a $53 billion endowment.
“Harvard should not go interjecting itself into politics,” said Summers, a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV. But “if an institution like Harvard cannot resist tyranny when applied to it,” he said, “then who can?”
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