Summary
The White House claimed it had not intended to send its revised, and more aggressive, set of demands to Harvard on April 11, according to a report by the New York Times published Friday evening.
Trump administration officials claimed that the demands, which were seen as excessive and illegal to Harvard’s administrators, should not have been sent and were “unauthorized.”
The Friday letter was supposed to clarify the initial list, but instead presented a much more aggressive array of demands that included derecognizing pro-Palestine groups, submitting to three years of federal audits, and agreeing to report international students who broke University conduct policies to federal agencies.
“Even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences.”
This is why we say, “Do not comply in advance”. I don’t buy this explanation for one second. Someone stood up the these MAGA-looneys and they’re saying this to save face and try to dodge problems in court.
Why would the demands have even been written up in the first place if they hadn’t intended to send them?
Well yeah, the article specifically mentioned that Harvard admins saw the demands as excessive and illegal.
Harvard has a lot of clout, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that someone very high-up at the school got on the phone with somebody very high-up at WH (if not POTUS himself) and straight up told them a narcissist’s least-favorite word: “No.”
“I didn’t want you to do that anyways.” crosses arms