The President of the United States Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to target US universities that are centers of student protests, even before his election in November.
Because he swore on January 20th, he took steps to support his plans, including executive commands. On Monday, he launched a new tirade, threatening to stop federal financing of schools, colleges and universities if they allow “illegal protests”.
Trump approached his social platform of truth to fulfill his latest threat, one that includes the promise that he would close “agitators”.
“Agitators will be closed/or permanently send back to the country they came from. US students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested,” Trump wrote.
But who is aiming, what Trump has done so far, can he force universities to act against student protesters and how can they respond to higher education institutions?
Who are the intended goals?
US Ambassador to UN Elise Stefanik shared Trump’s remarks in the post on X, saying that “anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli hatred will not tolerate on US campuses,” confirming that Professional protesters and speech are critical of Israel’s presidential threat.
Under the president @RealdonalddtrumpFaculty and universities will be responsible. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli hatred will not be tolerated on American campuses. Promises, promises. @Potus @Realdonalddtrump @Whitehouse pic.twitter.com/h9nq1gvjro
– Elise Stefanik (@elistefanik) March 4, 2025
Trump’s announcement comes after he signed a number of executive commands in January, targeting alleged anti -Semitism in campuses.
In one directive, he committed to deport the foreign students and staff involved in the pro-Palestinian protests as part of the burglary.
He also created a working group through the office of a general lawyer dedicated to fighting alleged anti -Semitic speech, exploring universities that do not do enough to break such a speech.
Commands and threats come a few months after the great pro-Palestin, protests guided by students, swallowed the land last spring while the Israeli genocide raged in Gaza. The students required the end of the Israeli military offensive, the end of the American support of Israel, and that their universities would be taken away from the Israel -based companies.
Columbia University is widely seen as the epicenter of the protest, resulting in mass arrests and suspensions of students, ending in the resignation of Minouche Shafik University President, a few months later.
Demonstrations have spread to other universities, including Harvard, Yale and the University of California.
Can Trump legally force universities to stop protests?
“It’s complicated,” said Jenin Younis, a civil freedom and a law lawyer.
“It’s hard to say that Tweet himself is illegal, because he was not done himself,” Younis told Al Jazeera of Trump’s latest threatening financing post. “So, it depends on how the administration executes this special threat, and has not yet given details.”
Radhika Sainath, a senior lawyer in Palestine Legal, a non-profit organization based in the United States, said the executive order is not binding rules for universities.
“This executive command sets the promotion frame-but do not require school to spy on and report their students and non-Citizen staff,” Sainath told Al Jazeera. “As far as we can say, it will be an optional guidelines without any implementation or pressure.”
Still, Trump’s Directives are extremely worrying, experts said.
“The power of these commands lies in their cold effect,” Younes said, adding that they are obviously intended for speech protected by the first amendment.
Fearing the consequences, some universities can voluntarily suppress the speech that they believe will be subjected to reducing the funds, she said and pressed students and professors in silence.
Universities received $ 60 billion in research and development of 2023, which accounts for 55 percent of its total budget for scientific and engineering research.
According to Sainath, this is “the most significant escalation in McCarthyit tactics in the executive government regarding Palestine from October 7th, [2023]”
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel Palestin in Non-Profit Dawn, says Trump’s threats are “a new form of transnational repression”.
“Limiting free speech and expressing states by cutting states, or more precisely, creating a cold effect threatening this is a sign of autocratic takeover,” said Omer-Man al Jazeera, adding that, in his opinion, such tactics may be “as effective as a ban on unpopular political views.”
Were the universities aimed under the Biden administration?
That. Universities witnessing protest protests throughout the country were also in many ways under former US President Joe Biden, who was critical of student camps.
University leaders tried and mostly failed to suffocate demonstrations, in which the police often saw it intervened violently, and videos appeared from different countries arrested by hundreds of students and even faculties.
At Columbia University, several deans resigned, as well as Shafik, who left as president after being called to the congress committee because of the allegations that the University failed to protect students and staff from growing anti -Semitism.
After the examination, Shafik allowed the police at the campus to arrest students and confront the angry calls to resign.
Trump seems to now double on targeting universities and students.
He “escalates the action” on the Palestinian movement and tries to undermine the constitutional rights of students and staff to speak and organize, Sainath said.
Will threats function?
Not on protesters, according to experts.
Omer-Man said that unprecedented support of Palestine at American campuses “so strong because students and colleges have already faced the consequences for speaking against the Israeli apartheid and stood up anyway.”
Students have continued to talk about Palestine since Trump revealed his executive commands.
Universities, however, are under pressure. This week, University of Columbia was forced to repeat its commitment to the “fight against anti -Semitism” after Trump’s administration said she could attract more than $ 50 million in contracts between the University and the Federal Government.
The statement of federal agencies cited the school “continuous inactivity despite the ruthless harassment of Jewish students.”
However, Omer-Man said the young Americans “had never been distracted by the violent attempts to bury the conscience of the nation.”
Sainath agreed.
“Students – and colleges – continue to speak, often with great personal risk, as people of conscience have done throughout history,” she said. “Their voices are crucial in the end of support for American support to the Israeli permanent genocide in Gaza, which is why Israel’s supporters do everything they can to stop this growing movement.”
How could universities answer?
Universities could be difficult to challenge these executive commands, Younes said.
They could be “easier to challenge them in a particular case”, after the government denies the funds or implementing policies in accordance with the executive order, she said.
Sainath said it was important for the schools to “stay on the right side of history here – they do not have to cooperate and they should not really cooperate” with these orders.
Universities should resist the pressure to engage in “Racist, Anti-Palestinian Cenzure campaigns and protect the right to academic freedom and freedom of speech,” Sainath added.
