Retired Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe is standing firmly behind his university as it faces a heated showdown with President Donald Trump — and he’s predicting a legal disaster ahead for the former president.
In a powerful interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday, Tribe praised Harvard’s refusal to cave to Trump’s demands, even as the former president threatens to strip the university of billions in scientific research funding and revoke its tax-exempt status through the IRS.
Trump had demanded that Harvard crack down on student protesters, mirroring his pressure tactics that forced a deal with Columbia University. But Harvard stood its ground, and Trump retaliated. According to the university, the funding freeze is already putting critical research and innovation at risk.
“So these funding cuts are already threatening critical academic research and potentially life-changing innovations, the university says,” Tapper noted, told TRT World.
Tribe, a vocal Trump critic and constitutional scholar, didn’t mince words in his response. “We’re going to stand up for basic principles, for the rights of our students, for the rights of research, for the survival of the teaching hospitals,” he said. “As long as it takes, we can outlast this bully.”
Tribe went further, calling out Trump’s tactics as both unconstitutional and destined to fail. “What we have discovered is that he is a combination of ineptitude, vindictiveness, lawlessness, and bluster,” he said. “The people who caved to him and who make deals with him… have learned that they’re not safe. He comes back for more.”
According to Tribe, Trump’s efforts to control what universities teach, what students say, and whom law firms defend are flatly illegal. “It’s not even a close question,” he added. “Judges across the spectrum are going to rule against Trump. We are going to prevail.”
In closing, Tribe delivered a message of resistance and solidarity. “The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him,” he said. “To stand up in solidarity and say, no, you will not dictate all of us, you will not control our lives, you will not control our thoughts.”
With Harvard standing firm and legal experts predicting defeat for Trump, this battle may be just beginning, but Tribe is confident about who will come out on top.
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