ERNST: Universities That Ignored Anti-Semitism Will Face Consequences Under Trump

Colleges and universities that did not work to stop campus anti-Semitism will face consequences under the Trump administration and Republican-dominated Senate, Senator Joni Ernst told The Daily Wire. 

“The new Senate Republican majority is going to work with the Trump administration to enforce the law in the face of campuses that have fanned the flames of hate through inaction,” the Iowa Republican told The Daily Wire. “Elite universities have made their bed, and they’ve got to lie in it, but not on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Anti-Semitic incidents have increased by over 500% since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli civilians. Ernst is one of several senators who have raised the alarm about the harm anti-Semitism has had on Jewish students. She says the Biden administration has repeatedly ignored her.

“The Biden administration ignored my repeated calls for action and sat on its hands as anti-Semitic violence exploded on college campuses across the country,” said Ernst. 

In contrast, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened both public and private universities with repercussions for enabling hatred and promoting a diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda. 

“My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end anti-Semitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support,” Donald Trump said in a September speech.

He added that Jewish Americans must have “equal protection” and that the United States government will not “subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers, and we’re not going to do it, certainly [not] on American soil.”

“My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that, if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support.”

Donald Trump couldn’t be clearer

“We will not subsidize the creation… pic.twitter.com/kRZXnDqQJ5

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 15, 2024

In May 2023, Trump outlined his plan to reform the college accreditation system, aiming to hold accreditors accountable in order to “reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.”

“The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers but they have failed totally,” he said. “When I return to the White House I will fire the radical left accreditors who have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”

He said he would direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools engaging in radical discrimination, and will fine schools up to the amount of their entire endowment if they continue such policies.

“And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment,” Trump said.

The risk of repercussions is not just for public schools, as private schools often receive large amounts of government funding. Harvard University, which received $676 million in federal research funding in 2023 alone, is currently the subject of a bipartisan congressional investigation into campus anti-Semitism.

Harvard is ranked fifth in federal funding among elite private schools, according to the Boston Globe, receiving $3.27 billion between 2018-2022. Stanford received the most at $7 billion, and Columbia University came in at second with $5.9 billion.

Columbia University stands to lose up to $3.5 billion a year — up to 55 percent of its university’s operating budget — if such policies are enacted, The Free Press reported.

Law professor Mark Goldfeder, who testified before Congress on campus anti-Semitism, said Trump’s plan has the ability to transform higher education for the better.

“The President’s plan to reform higher education by taxing private university endowments that have been flooded with money from authoritarian middle eastern regimes, and using that cash flow to create a new nonpolitical American Academy that offers a world class education free of charge, is classic Trump,” Goldfeder said.

Goldfeder pointed out that many of America’s top universities take money from or have associations with authoritarian regimes such as Qatar. Between 2001 and 2021, Qatar was one of the biggest donors to American universities, giving $4.7 billion, according to a 2022 study. Georgetown University alone received $870 million from Qatar since 2005. The Daily Wire previously reported on Georgetown hosting terrorist-linked speakers at a conference in September.

“Trump is going to build a new ivory tower, and he is going to make Qatar pay for it,” Goldfeder added.

The Daily Wire has also reported on Harvard partnering with Birzeit University, located near Ramallah in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank), which could also spell trouble for the Ivy League. Birzeit is home to an overwhelmingly Hamas-affiliated student government and its chairwoman has denied Hamas’ brutality and rape on October 7. Birzeit University’s official account also called for “glory to the martyrs” days after the attack. 

“Birzeit University has a well-documented history of discriminating against Jews and Israeli students, while welcoming suspected terrorists and Hamas supporters with open arms,” said Ernst. “Harvard University’s relationship with such an institution speaks to its shameful embrace of anti-Semitism. The American people deserve to know if Harvard has sent even a penny of the tax dollars it receives to this school that fuels hate and violence.”