1 day ago
6
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
White House Memo
Since regaining the White House, President Trump has been fixated on making an example of those who push back against him.
May 28, 2025
“They’re hurting themselves.”
In President Trump’s telling from the Oval Office on Wednesday, Harvard University has no one but itself to blame for his administration’s swift suffocation of its federal funding.
The “last thing” he wants to do is harm the storied jewel of American higher education, he said. But he had no choice. The university was fighting back.
“Harvard has got to behave themselves,” Mr. Trump said. “Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper. They’ve got to behave themselves.”
He went on: “I’m looking out for the country and for Harvard.”
The president’s framing of his administration’s aggressive pressure campaign speaks not just to how he sees his efforts to dominate Harvard and what it teaches and who it admits, but also how he views opposition more broadly. It’s a constant in Mr. Trump’s worldview: If he goes after someone or something, it is their fault, not his. They are responsible for his actions. Not him.
For Mr. Trump, making an example of institutions and people that push back against him has been paramount since he regained the White House. He wants to send a message that no dissent will be tolerated, lest anyone else try. Crushing opponents sends a message to others: that there is a right way to behave, through capitulation, and a wrong way to behave, which is defending oneself.
Harvard is a test case for how to deal with the White House, administration officials said. The White House spokesman Harrison Fields was blunt: “Work with the president or double down on stupid.”
