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President Trump went after an attorney retained by his family company Thursday as part of his latest broadside against Harvard University — saying he hoped the advocate was “forced to resign, immediately, or be fired.”
The president’s post describing the Ivy League school as an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution,” a “Liberal mess” and a “threat to Democracy” appeared to reference William Burck, an outside ethics adviser for the Trump Organization who was tapped to represent the school in an ongoing lawsuit against the White House over a $2.2 billion federal funding freeze.
“Harvard is a threat to Democracy, with a lawyer, who represents me, who should therefore be forced to resign, immediately, or be fired,” wrote Trump, 78. “He’s not that good, anyway, and I hope that my very big and beautiful company, now run by my sons, gets rid of him ASAP!”
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told CNN of Burck’s employment: “I view it as a conflict and I will be moving in a different direction.”
Burck declined to comment when contacted by The Post.
Harvard sued the Trump administration Monday over the frozen funding, with University President Alan Garber accusing the government of seeking “unprecedented and improper control” over campus affairs to keep taxpayer money going.
“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Garber wrote in a statement.
On April 11, the Trump administration’s White House task force on antisemitism sent an email outlining a slew of demands that the prestigious school clamp down on antisemitism and end certain diversity and gender programs in favor of merit.
Those demands included steps such as establishing more merit-based hiring; ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs; reforming “programs with egregious records of antisemitism and other bias;” and stepping up admissions screening of international applicants to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values,” including those “supportive of terrorism or antisemitism.”
“Harvard is an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the World that want to rip our Country apart,” the full Trump post read. “The place is a Liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE. It is truly horrific! Now, since our filings began, they act like they are all ‘American Apple Pie.’
The president has also threatened to go after Harvard’s tax exempt status in his fight with the school.
Harvard had one of the largest anti-Israel protests on campus in the aftermath of the Hamas October 7th, 2023, attack against the Jewish state — which killed an estimated 1,200 people, including dozens of Americans.
The Trump administration has justified their move by citing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids federal funding from going to schools that discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin.
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