Trump Promises to End Tax Favors for Colleges That Discriminate Against Conservatives and Promote Anti-Semitism

‘We’re going to take away the tax advantages and grants. We’re going to take away their endowments.’
Trump Promises to End Tax Favors for Colleges That Discriminate Against Conservatives and Promote Anti-Semitism
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump claps during a campaign event at the Whittemore Center Arena in Durham, N.H., on Dec. 16, 2023. Scott Eisen/Getty Images
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Former President Donald Trump promised to end tax advantages from universities that promote anti-Semitism if elected following recent controversial comments from heads of schools that sparked public outcry across the nation.

During his campaign rally in Durham, New Hampshire, on Dec. 16, President Trump told his supporters that he would remove tax favors as well as take away endowments from those colleges that “attack free speech” and discriminate against conservatives, Christians, and Jews.

“We’re going to take away the tax advantages and grants. We’re going to take away their endowments,” he said. “They will pay us billions and billions of dollars for the terror they have unleashed into our once-great country.”

During a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism that surged following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas terrorist group that kicked off a war in Gaza, the presidents of top universities Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) avoided giving a clear answer when asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) if calling for the genocide of Jews violates their schools’ rules.

Their responses during the hearing received widespread backlash and led to UPenn’s president’s resignation, while the presidents of Harvard and MIT remain in office but have faced calls for their resignation. The House of Representatives also passed a resolution condemning college anti-Semitism testimony of these university presidents and the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses, as well as calling for their resignation.

Talking with the crowd, President Trump noted that the ideology of Marxists and fascists has “taken over our universities.”

“They’ve destroyed the reputations of once highly respected schools like Harvard, MIT, Colombia, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, the great Wharton School of Finance,” said President Trump, who is himself a graduate of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The 45th president accused these universities of trying to “indoctrinate our youth and bring censorship and anti-Semitism to our campuses.”

Cheers also erupted when he pledged that “on day one” of his second term, he would also end funding to any school pushing the Marxist “critical race theory” and “gender theory.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in the first month after the Israel–Hamas war began, anti-Semitism on campus has increased more than tenfold over the same period in 2022. Its latest study with Hillel International found that 73 percent of Jewish college students have encountered or witnessed anti-Semitism since the beginning of the 2023–2024 academic year.
During his rally at the University of New Hampshire, President Trump picked up two influential endorsements—one from former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse and another from New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women President Elizabeth Girard.

Removing ‘Marxist Maniacs and Lunatics’ From Colleges

This is not the first time President Trump has mentioned the plight of education in the present day. In a promotional video in May, he promised to get “anti-American insanity out of” U.S. schools and reclaim America’s educational institutions from the grip of the “radical left.”
President Trump said he would seize endowments from colleges that follow discrimination through equity initiatives.

“I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination,” he said. “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.”

He also highlighted the issue of student debt due to sky-high tuition fees, which which continue to increase, while “academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth.”

He criticized the accreditors—who are supposed to make sure that schools are not ripping off students—for having “failed totally” at their jobs.

“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,” he added.

President Trump also said he wanted to impose real standards on American higher education institutions, including defending the American tradition and Western civilization, removing “Marxist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ bureaucrats,” and protecting free speech.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-based college admissions—also known as “affirmative action”—in higher education to be unconstitutional. 
Naveen Athrappully and Alice Giordano contributed to this report
Aaron Pan
Aaron Pan
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Aaron Pan is a reporter covering China and U.S. news. He graduated with a master's degree in finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
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