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As pro-Hamas students continue to shut down and disrupt campuses, the Trump administration is now using punitive measures to force universities to regain control and protect its other students from abuse and intimidation.
Over the last week, the Trump administration made it clear that the time for talk is over as it begins carrying out its promise to defund universities that don’t quell disruptive pro-terrorist and antisemitic campus activities and revoke green cards and visas held by foreign students leading such activities.
In the 18 months since Hamas’s horrific October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, America’s top colleges have been home to pro-Hamas riots and unfettered antisemitism. In most cases, the leaders of those universities have been unable or unwilling to put a stop to attacks on Jewish students and other pro-Hamas chaos, interrupting students’ ability to learn or even attend classes.
Last Tuesday, President Trump wrote a warning to colleges and protesters on Truth Social, saying, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
According to Axios, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also discussed plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help identify foreign students who show support for terrorist organizations. The department will then revoke the foreign students’ visas.
In a document released by the White House, Trump is quoted as saying, “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
It is very clear now the President was not bluffing.
In announcing its punitive measures against Columbia, the Trump administration noted that it is not only cutting $400 million in grant funding but also reviewing the school’s other $5 billion in federal grants and contracts as a result of its inability or refusal to stop pro-Hamas disruptions on its campus.
“On March 3, the Task Force notified the Acting President of Columbia University that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants in light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” stated a press release from the DoED. “Chaos and anti-Semitic harassment have continued on and near campus in the days since. Columbia has not responded to the Task Force.”
The release refers to ongoing chaos on Columbia and Barnard College campuses in New York City. Barnard College, a private women’s university that is affiliated with Columbia and located across the street, has had repeated incidents related to pro-Hamas protesters.
In January on the first day of the semester, pro-Hamas activists demonstrated on the campuses as two activists interrupted a Columbia History of Modern Israel lecture to hand out flyers and pamphlets that featured antisemitic, violent, and pro-Hamas verbiage and images. One of the pamphlets included Hamas propaganda called “Our Narrative,” which comes from Hamas’s press group and justifies the October 7 attacks.
The two students were expelled, which then led to a sit-in and occupation at Barnard that turned violent and led to the hospitalization of a university employee. As school officials tried to engage in conversations with the protestors and offered mediation, the students booed, shouted them down, and refused to cooperate.
Photos of October 7 architect Yanyah Sinwar were placed all over campus and handed out, and students also made a doll of Barnard President Laura Rosenberry and hung it in effigy from the side of a building and issued a wanted poster for one of the deans.
Several Barnard and Columbia students have spoken out about their frustration with the universities’ coddling of pro-Hamas protesters, who for more than a year have disrupted classes and occupied buildings.
Columbia student Shoshana Aufzien stated,
“The university condemned the incident. I thought their words were a little lackluster. I’m not looking for lip service. I want action.
I literally just want to go to class. It’s midterm season right now. [My parents] are paying $95,000 a year for me to be educated and I can’t even access that education. It’s pathetic.
Protesters took a dean hostage. They refused to let her go to the bathroom. And they impeded students from accessing an education. That should be grounds for not just condemnation, but real change. And that’s what I want to see, and I haven’t seen it yet.”
It seems the Trump administration is ready to see real change as well. Newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in one of her first statements in office, said:
“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them. Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
Meanwhile, in first announcing that it had revoked the first student visa of a foreign student for supporting Hamas, later confirmed to be Khalil, the State Department said that the student will soon be deported. In a post on X, Rubio stated:
“Those who support designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, threaten our national security. The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists. Violators of U.S. law — including international students — face visa denial or revocation, and deportation.”
This is how you fix the violent, pro-terrorism plague on college campuses. It’s not just about antisemitism, however. It’s also about the anti-Americanism that has been fueled within our academic institutions by two ideologies: radical Marxism and Islamic jihadism.
For years, many colleges have become Marxist indoctrination facilities that brainwash students to hate their country, Christianity and Judaism, white people and Jews, capitalism, the nuclear family, and Western society.
That has mixed perfectly with an influx of students from Middle Eastern countries who share their hatred for Jews and Christians, America, and Western values. Currently, woke college students around the United States are being used by Iran, Hamas, and Islamic groups around the world to promote their propaganda and to target their enemies: Israel and the United States.
It is no surprise that Columbia has become the hotbed of the activism. Columbia is where German critical scholars founded the Frankfurt School to spread Marxism throughout the United States. The seeds of their efforts have germinated and grown into a university that can no longer see the difference between right and wrong.
With its sudden punitive actions, the new administration is sending a strong message: The cancer of antisemitism and anti-Americanism will not be tolerated any longer — and not a moment too soon.
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