When the Trump government announced last week to delete Harvard $ 2.2 billion in funding after the renowned university refused to fulfill a government’s catalog of demands, the news made high waves worldwide (FAZ of April 17). Now the white house seems to be back and limited damage. As the “New York Times” reports, the university has received the “desperate call of a Trump official” that the government’s letter should not have been sent. He was “not authorized”, the official of the university management is said to have said. The American newspaper relies on two united people who should be familiar with the matter. The list that went to the university on April 11 by e-mail contains demands on attitudes, approvals and curricula of the university, which intervene in unexpected meadow in the freedom of science, so that the university management was forced to publish the list and defend itself against the white house. In addition, the conflict was heated by US President Donald Trump, who wrote on his platform “Truth Social” that the university was a “joke” and teaching “hatred and stupidity”. Keveney is a member of the Task Force against anti -Semitism and was unavailable for comment over the “New York Times”. It remains unclear why the letter was sent if this was not intended. Two opinions are to be circulated in the White House. Either this happened prematurely or the list was only intended for the members of the Task Force and not for Harvard, but the time is crucial for the “New York Times”. The letter arrived when Harvard still believed that he could avoid a confrontation with President Trump. In the two weeks earlier it had an intensive exchange between Harvard and the Task Force. But when the list of receivables arrived on April 11, Harvard was convinced that an agreement was no longer possible and published the catalog of claims. Thereupon the Trump government frozen the federal funds for the university and threatened with withdrawal of the tax exemption. The newspaper quotes May Mailman, chief strategy in the White House, who considers it to be a mistake by the Harvard lawyers, “did not reach the phone and called the members of the anti-Semitism-task force to have spoken for weeks”, but “a victim’s campaign”. The university rejected the claim with good reasons. The letter was “signed by three federal civil servants, printed on official stationery and sent from the email inbox of a high-ranking federal official,” said Harvard: “Recipients of such a letter from the US government do not question their authenticity or seriousness-even if they contain extensive demands that are amazing in their exaggeration.”
The White House rows back in conflict with the University of Harvard
