Why does Trump want to tear down Harvard?
The News Agents - USA
Global
4.3 • 719 Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Not content with demanding government oversight of Harvard's teaching and appointments, Donald Trump has directed his government to cease all federal funding of America's most prestigious university. And in a wider blow to academia, US embassies around the world have been ordered to suspend scheduling appointments for student visas. Social media vetting will be stepped up for those hoping to step foot on an American campus. Why is Donald Trump so fixated on the higher education institutions that have made the US world leaders in so many sectors? We speak to one Harvard scholar who is leading the calls for his university not to cave in to the pressure.
Later, as Trump accuses Putin of "playing with fire", could he finally be serious about slapping tough new sanctions on Russia? And what does America's intelligence community make of the way he's conducting himself on the world stage?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents USA Podcast is brought to you by HSBC, UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:10.7 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:14.0 | And the president is more interested in giving that taxpayer money to trade schools, in programs, in state schools, where they are promoting American values, |
| 0:24.1 | but most importantly, educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society, |
| 0:31.8 | apprenticeships, electricians, plumbers, we need more of those in our country and less LGBTQ graduate majors from |
| 0:40.1 | Harvard University. And that's what this administration's position is. To be fair, I don't think you do |
| 0:45.5 | qualify from Harvard University with an LGBTQ degree. But that is Caroline Levitt, the president's press |
| 0:54.1 | secretary, saying, oh, screw Harvard at a time |
| 0:58.7 | of quantum computing, AI, the battle for the greatest scientific minds. What we need are more painters |
| 1:06.2 | and decorators. Why is the Trump administration so determined to tear down America's greatest |
| 1:14.4 | academic institution? Welcome to the newsagents USA. It's John and it is a riddle. Why is President Trump so determined to go after Harvard University |
| 1:34.4 | with such venom and such aggression that you are more or less tearing down the single greatest |
| 1:42.6 | academic institution in America that has been |
| 1:45.5 | the recipient of Upton Nobel Prizes, but has also provided the scientists, the brains, that |
| 1:51.3 | have started some of the most innovative companies in the United States, which attracts the |
| 1:56.8 | brightest and the best from around the world that leads to things like Silicon Valley |
| 2:02.4 | happening, which leads the world in terms of the technology and IT and all the rest of it. |
| 2:09.5 | Donald Trump is withdrawing federal funding from Harvard University because it will not |
| 2:15.8 | accept the imposition of rules and regulations that effectively |
| 2:22.0 | would mean that Harvard University would be under the control of the White House or a board |
| 2:28.5 | sympathetic to the White House so that more or less MAGA would be deciding who could serve as an academic, a professor |
| 2:37.8 | or teacher in the faculty of this or that. Harvard is saying that's a line we cannot cross and a |
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