Who's Really 'Hostile to American Values'

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Apr 17, 2025

brown concrete building at daytime — Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

The White House, lacking self-awareness, wants Harvard to bar foreign students who are hostile to American Values.

In a letter sent to Harvard last week, the Trump administration demanded compliance with a set of requirements to continue receiving government funding. And this morning news broke that the IRS is looking into revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

Among the requirements mentioned in the letter, Trump wants Harvard to,

... adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin ...
... reform its recruitment, screening, and admissions of international students to prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence ...
… abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests. Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity ...

There are many problems with this letter. I'll highlight four of them.

First, I'm sure there are some international students who don't share American values, but that’s OK as long as they abide by our laws. They're not American, after all, so why should they hold American values?

When I was a student and a professor, I had the pleasure of learning and teaching alongside many international students. Having students from outside the U.S. who were raised in a different culture enriched our conversations and the learning experience, for domestic and international students alike.

I recall one of my students from China in particular. She was one of my best students, smart and eager to learn. These were courses in American politics and she defended her nation's political system but struggled with its weaknesses, which she was beginning to better understand through her coursework. As a teacher, I loved seeing my students defend their own system of government in our class debates because they hadn't need to stretch their brains in that way before. The Chinese student made the class better.

In the same way, international students make our education system better, better for our students and for the international students who will learn about American values while they are here and take those lessons back to their own countries.

Second, you'd be hard pressed to find an international student more "hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence" than President Donald Trump. The Declaration of Independence was written to extract us from the type of authoritarian rule that Trump aspires to, and is turning us into.

In fact, many of the complaints about King George found in the Declaration of Independence apply to Trump today.

For example, the Declaration says that King George

has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. ...
has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
has made Judges dependent on his Will alone ...
has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. ...
has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: ...
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ...
has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, ...

These same complaints apply to Trump today.

I've mentioned before in this newsletter how Trump betrays the American values contained in the Bill of Rights, and just this week he shared his intent violate freedom of the press by punishing CBS for unfavorable news coverage. He's already suing CBS. And after 60 Minutes aired a segment about Greenland and an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last weekend, Trump claimed CBS should lose it's broadcast license.

Using government power to punish the press for coverage you don't like is also hostile to American Values.

Third, the letter contradicts itself. The Trump administration wants Harvard to abolish "ideological litmus tests" while requiring "viewpoint diversity." But you can't have viewpoint diversity without an ideological litmus test. It's impossible to do both at the same time.

Fourth, it's illegal. The president doesn't have the authority to rescind spending authorized by Congress. Our Founders gave the power of the purse to Congress in Article I, sections 8 and 9, of the Constitution. Congress has reiterated that authority in law many times over the years, most especially in the Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which explicitly denies the president the authority to not spend money authorized by Congress.

Thankfully, Harvard rejected the administration's demands, writing in part, "The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights."

Harvard is standing up to a wannabe despot. Now that's American values.

The Hill: “Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump strike deal with Salem Media”

Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump have reached a deal with Salem Media that will make the pair of Trump family members a major part of the company’s strategic growth and content offerings moving forward, the network announced on Monday.

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NewsChannel5: “Men behind Tennessee's Christian nationalist settlement: 'This country belongs to Jesus,' not the Jews”

Here, in a small red-brick office building purchased by the developers trying to build a Christian nationalist community in rural Jackson County, two men are also attempting to build a right-wing podcasting business.
As NewsChannel 5 previously revealed, Pastor Andrew Isker and his sidekick C.Jay Engel want to “repeal the 20th Century.” They want to go back to America as it existed before the Civil Rights movement. They want to take away the rights of women to vote. And they are prepared to accept a Protestant dictator to achieve their goals.

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NYT: “The Podcaster Asking You to Side With History’s Villains”

All of which makes Mr. Cooper a man of this second Trumpian moment: an idiosyncratic autodidact with no formal affiliations who has built a huge audience by promising his listeners ostensibly forbidden histories, a self-fashioned “brave truth-teller” willing to challenge elite consensus, said Nicole Hemmer, a historian at Vanderbilt University who has written about the history of right-wing media.
His project syncs up with the radical skepticism ascendant on the American right, which is currently upending decades of institutional wisdom around public health, education and international trade. And in its outlook, if not its politics, this skepticism rhymes with the “woke” left’s, promising deeper realities concealed by a dying power structure.

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