One of the many exciting aspects of the second Trump administration so far has been that it does what it said it would do. In an age when it’s generally assumed that politicians don’t really mean what they say, that has been beyond refreshing, and although leftists still haven’t caught on to the fact, it’s one of the chief secrets of Trump’s success. On Friday, the administration did it again, following through on Trump’s warnings to the radioactive wastelands of leftist indoctrination that are known as our nation’s institutions of higher learning by canceling $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University.
It makes sense. If Columbia is going to reduce itself willingly to being little, if anything, more than a recruitment center for Antifa and Hamas, why should any taxpayer money go to it? ABC News reported Friday that “according to the Justice Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration,” the cancellation of the money that had been due to go to Columbia was because of “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
This comes after the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism warned Columbia administrators on March 3 that it was going to “conduct a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants in light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.” Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, stated that “freezing the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism… Cancelling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the Federal Government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff.”
The best thing that Terrell said, however, was that “this is only the beginning.” That’s good because Columbia actually receives no less than $5 billion from the feds, and so while cutting $400 million is an extremely good start and a welcome development, there is a great deal more to be done to call this sinister institution, and so very many others like it, to account.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who will, we hope, soon be out of a job because there will be no education department, emphasized that Columbia richly deserves the defunding:
Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses. Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled. Institutions that receive federal funds have a responsibility to protect all students from discrimination. Columbia’s apparent failure to uphold their end of this basic agreement raises very serious questions about the institution’s fitness to continue doing business with the United States government.
Yes indeed. It was just last week that pro-Hamas students at Columbia violently took over a building and started screaming for “intifada revolution.” Imagine being a Jewish student trying to get to class in such an environment. Columbia University Apartheid Divest last August issued a statement saying: “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.” Columbia University Apartheid Divest also boasts: “We are currently a coalition of 116 different organizations. We represent thousands of Columbia students across nine different schools.” The emphasis is theirs.
Yet neither Columbia nor any of the other far-left universities (redundant, I know) has ever been called to account before, and so the administration’s action Friday is nothing short of earth-shaking.
The lesson that everyone should now grasp is that Trump means business. When he orders colleges and universities to stop allowing jihadi thugs to menace Jewish students, and calls for an end to the teaching and financing of transgender madness in the schools, or for the teaching of socialist internationalism and hatred of America, those schools can count on there being consequences if they decide to be defiant.
The administration’s action gives some hope that the madness could recede in American academia, and that our nation’s universities could once again become institutions of higher learning rather than far-left propaganda centers. Maybe they’re too far gone for that at this point, but Trump’s action on Friday offers a glimmer of hope.
