Trump: Former President ‘Claudine Gay Has Set Harvard Back 50 to 100 Years’

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after arriving for his civil business fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court in New York City, on Dec. 7, 2023. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez-Pool/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said that Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, has set the university back by decades following her resignation over plagiarism accusations and her handling of anti-Semitism on campus.

“Claudine Gay has set Harvard back 50 to 100 years,” the former president said on Truth Social on Jan. 4. “Other than that, she has done a great job!!!”

Ms. Gay resigned on Jan. 2 after mounting plagiarism accusations and weeks of intense pressure from lawmakers, donors, alumni, and students asking her to step down. She said her resignation “is in the best interests of Harvard” in an email to the Harvard community.

During his campaign rally in New Hampshire last month, President Trump told his supporters that he would remove tax favors as well as take away endowments from those colleges that allow anti-Semitism on campus, “attack free speech” and discriminate against conservatives, Christians, and Jews.

Early last month, Ms. Gay drew the national spotlight when she was asked to testify before Congress following anti-Semitism on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. During the hearing, she avoided directly answering questions from Rep. Elise M. Stefanik (R-N.Y.) regarding whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s rules.

Her closely guarded depends-on-the-context response drew widespread backlash and calls for her resignation. However, the Harvard Corporation, the school governing body, initially stood by Ms. Gay. The board also cleared her of an academic violation regarding initial plagiarism accusations and allowed her to retain her position.

As more plagiarism accusations circulated, the school newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, also published op-eds from students calling for Ms. Gay to step down. Earlier, national newspapers, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post ran op-eds calling for her resignation.

Things got worse for Ms. Gay when additional plagiarism accusations surfaced, leading to her resignation.

The tenure of Harvard’s first black president was just six months and is the shortest in the university’s history.

Ms. Stefanik, a Harvard alum, celebrated Ms. Gay’s departure, saying the move is “long overdue.” She called Ms. Gay’s answers “absolutely pathetic” and lacking “the moral leadership and academic integrity” expected of a Harvard president. The New York lawmaker said the resignation is “just the beginning of what will be the greatest scandal in the history of any college or university.”

House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who hosted the hearing last month, released a statement, saying, “While President Gay’s resignation is welcome news, the problems at Harvard are much larger than one leader, and the Committee’s oversight will continue.”

Harvard is among multiple schools and universities under civil rights investigations by the U.S. Department of Education following allegations of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia since the start of the Israel–Hamas war.

Among those alongside Ms. Gay during the testimony, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill stepped down shortly after their controversial hearing, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth remains in her position.

Ms. Gay remains at Harvard as a faculty member after stepping down as the school’s president.

Calling the Board to Step Down

In another move, billionaire Bill Ackman and Ms. Stefanik called board members of the Harvard Corporation to step down amid their roles in handling Ms. Gay’s scandals.

Mr. Ackman criticized Harvard’s leadership for failing to address problems around its former president that have caused damage to the reputation of one of the world’s top universities.

Ms. Stefanik revealed the names of board members, accusing them of defending the former Harvard president’s anti-Semitic congressional hearing and “covered up her plagiarism, shirking their fiduciary and overseer responsibilities.”

Warning ‘Campaign’ Against Institutions

In her op-ed published in the New York Times on Jan. 3 after stepping down, Ms. Gay warned that “the campaign” against her is “a broader war” against institutions.

“Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise,” she said. “Trusted institutions of all types—from public health agencies to news organizations—will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility.”

She admitted “mistakes” and said she “fell into a well-laid trap” at the congressional hearing last month, saying, “I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

She also defended her work in the op-ed. “I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others,” Ms. Gay said. “Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field.”