Former President Trump said he plans to “fire” the “radical left” individuals that “have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics” and ensure higher education is focused on “defending the American tradition” if elected to a second term.
The 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee posted an education policy video to his Truth Social Tuesday night amid violent antisemitic anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the nation.
“For many years, tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding and I mean absolutely exploding,” Trump said. “While academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth, the time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left. And we will do that.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a 2024 election campaign rally in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump said his “secret weapon” will be the “college accreditation system,” which he says is called “accreditation for a reason.”
“The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers, but they have failed totally,” Trump said.
Accreditation is a third-party review process to review whether education programs meet defined standards of quality.
“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left, accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” the former president continued. “We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again, and once and for all.”
Trump said the standards would include “defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money’s worth.”
Trump also said, if elected, he would direct the Justice Department to “pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination.”
Anti-Israel agitators construct an encampment on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Monday, April 22, 2024. The university announced that all classes would be held virtually today in response to the ongoing demonstrations on campus. (Peter Gerber)
Trump added that schools “that persist in explicit, unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation.”
Trump said he would advance a measure to have universities “fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
“A portion of the seized funds will then be used for restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies–policies that hurt our country so badly,” he said.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MOVES TO HYBRID LEARNING ON MAIN CAMPUS AMID ANTISEMITIC PROTESTS
“Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers, and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all,” he continued. “We are going to have real education in America.”
The former president’s policy video was posted to Truth Social Tuesday afternoon, shortly before he blasted Columbia University for moving its classes virtual amid days and days of massive pro-Gaza protests on campus.
“They’re closing Columbia now? I mean, it’s just crazy,” Trump said. “Columbia should gain a little strength, a little courage and keep their school open.”
Anti-Israel agitators construct an encampment on Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Monday, April 22, 2024. The university announced that all classes would be held virtually today in response to the ongoing demonstrations on campus. (Peter Gerber)
Trump’s comments came after students at Columbia University were instructed that classes had shifted to virtual or hybrid amid ongoing safety concerns stemming from the anti-Israel protests filling the campus.
“It’s crazy because that means the other side wins,” Trump said Tuesday. “When you start closing down colleges and universities—that means the other side [wins.]”
“The people running Columbia have made a grave mistake,” Trump said.
Law enforcement officers block a street during a protest against a draft bill on “foreign agents” in Tbilisi, Georgia April 15, 2024. (REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze)
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Columbia University’s updated guidelines, as of Tuesday morning, said all courses on the Morningside main campus have moved to hybrid learning “until the end of each school’s Spring 2024 semester.”
“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the school’s Provost Angela Olinto wrote in a statement released early Tuesday morning. “It’s vital that teaching and learning continue during this time.”
