American universities could lose accreditation and federal support due to continued anti-Semitic rhetoric, should former President Donald Trump win the presidential election in November.
Trump announced his intent to penalize “anti-Semitic propaganda” while speaking to more than 1,000 Republican Jewish Coalition donors in Las Vegas on Sept. 5.
“Colleges will and must end the anti-Semitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support,” Trump said, speaking remotely. “No money will go to them if they don’t.”
The former president did not specify what actions would trigger the penalties.
A wave of student protests that polarized campuses occurred at prominent schools such as Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and others starting late last year. Pro-Palestinian students demanded that the institutions denounce Israel’s retaliation against Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Jewish students have voiced concerns about anti-Semitism in the criticism of Israel.
While the federal government does not itself accredit schools in the United States, it does play a role in supervising the largely private entities that do.
In his speech, Trump also stated that he would prohibit refugee resettlement from regions such as Gaza and arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” who engage in vandalism, in what appeared to be a reference to the student protesters.
The Association of American Universities (AAU), which touts membership of 69 universities, including all eight Ivy League schools, did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment.
“Scholarly exchange with institutions and scholars around the globe promotes the production and dissemination of knowledge,” AAU said in its Aug. 19 press release.
“Engagement with scholars as well as academic institutions is critical to the advancement of human knowledge and should not be abridged solely on the basis of whether one likes or dislikes the policies of the government where an academic institution is located,” it said.
Trump said that under a Harris administration, Israel and the Jewish people would be “abandoned.”
“You’re not going to have an Israel if she becomes president,” Trump said.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment, but the vice president has said in the past that she supports Israel and has not backed a ban on U.S. weapons support for the allied nation. She has also called for a cease-fire in Gaza.
After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 25, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Harris said she supports a two-state solution.
