Barack Obama blasts thin-skinned bully Donald Trump for his endless obsession with petty revenge

For someone who prides himself on being a “strongman,” Donald Trump has an awful lot in common with a dollar-store dictator.

He’s stuck in the role of a reality-TV villain, using the tools of the presidency like a vindictive HOA president who just found out his neighbor painted their mailbox the wrong shade of beige. And now, his latest stunt — threatening one of the most prestigious universities in the world because they didn’t kowtow to his demands — might just take the cake for pettiness. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, never one to miss an opportunity to point out Trump’s flaws (and let’s be honest, there are plenty), weighed in on the Harvard debacle with a scathing critique.

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and… https://t.co/gAu9UUqgjF

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 15, 2025

Trump and his administration recently decided that Harvard University hadn’t been behaving itself. Apparently, the Ivy League giant had failed some arbitrary loyalty test, so Trump’s team issued a laundry list of demands disguised as a crusade against antisemitism. Combatting antisemitism is, of course, a noble and necessary goal — something that should be taken seriously. But Trump’s intentions were less about protecting Jewish students and more about exerting control over academic institutions that he’s never been able to stomach. His disdain for elite universities has been well documented, fueled by the perception that they are bastions of liberal thought — places where, God forbid, people might openly criticize his administration.

Trump’s administration wanted Harvard to report students who were “hostile to American values,” implement “viewpoint diversity” in its academic departments, and even hire government-approved auditors to rummage through programs that allegedly fostered antisemitic harassment. If that wasn’t Orwellian enough for you, they also demanded that faculty be investigated for plagiarism.

Harvard, to its credit, wasn’t having it. The university’s president, Alan Garber, issued a firm response, declaring that no government—regardless of who’s in power—has the right to dictate what a private university can teach, who they can admit, or what they can research. So how did Trump respond? Predictably, like the aforementioned dollar-store dictator. Hours after Harvard’s defiance, his administration announced that they were freezing over $2 billion in federal funds for the university. That’s $2 billion meant for research, innovation, and education—money that ultimately benefits the country as a whole.

The Department of Education released a statement accusing the university of having an “entitlement mindset” and failing to protect Jewish students from harassment. This isn’t an isolated incident, either. His administration has gone after student visas, threatened funding for institutions that don’t comply with his policies, and even tried to ban diversity training on campuses. Harvard, with its $53 billion endowment, can perhaps weather this financial storm better than most institutions. But what about smaller institutions that can’t afford to lose federal funding? What about the chilling effect this kind of governmental overreach could have on academic freedom across the country? Those are the real stakes here.