Joe Battenfeld: Harvard elites playing victim card in battle against Trump

Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald on May 28, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Harvard elites are now trying to play the victim in their battle against President Donald Trump, but the rich snobs are proving to be the perfect foil for the White House.

This is the same university, after all, that let Elizabeth Warren fraudulently claim to be a Native American to boost their diversity numbers.

It’s the same place that has stashed countless woke ex-pols and journalists on the payroll, as well as high-priced deans and faculty with take-home pay that would make Marty Meehan envious.

It’s the alma mater and employer of former Gov. Deval Patrick, whose first act in the Corner Office was to install new drapes and get himself a fancy new Cadillac.

And where is Mayor Michelle Wu rumored to be going after turning Boston into Wutopia? A cushy post at Harvard, of course.

Trump has already won the optics of this fight by blocking federal grant money and moving to remove Harvard’s tax exempt status, which they shouldn’t have.

Now he is going after foreign students from mostly privileged backgrounds who don’t have a right to be there.

This is a particularly brutal blow for Harvard, which has been relying on rich international students to fatten their coffers for decades.

And Trump is threatening to give away billions in their grants to trade schools – another master PR move to get the public on his side.

“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

“I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!”

This is simply too much for the Harvard snobs, who are fighting back by organizing a “Crimson Courage” webinar and in-person rally on Tuesday featuring international students and alumni speakers like Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and elitist journalist intellectuals like William Kristol and E.J. Dionne.

Maybe Healey can lecture them on how to sue Trump a hundred times and bankrupt a state on migrant hotel shelters.

“The webinar will launch Crimson Courage’s outreach efforts to amplify and galvanize alumni support for Harvard’s strong stand in defense of academic independence and freedom, threatened not only at Harvard, but also at higher education institutions nationwide,” a press alert announcing the event said.

Let’s see, pampered Harvard alumni versus tough kids from trade schools, who will win that battle?