CNN reports that Kristi Noem sent a stern letter to Harvard, demanding the disciplinary records of all international students or lose the right to enroll any international students.
Trump is turning all his dogs loose on Harvard. He can’t believe Harvard is standing up to his threats, and he is determined to crush the nation’s most prestigious research university.
Whatever happened to small government? Republicans used to believe that the federal government should leave the private sector alone. Trump believes in big government, big enough to interfere in every institution, even into private medical decisions. He wants to be the emperor.
Clearly, he never read the U.S. Constitution. He knows nothing about checks and balances. Nor did he read Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle; Yertle wanted to be the master of all he could see. Read it to see what happened to him.
CNN reports:
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is threatening to strip Harvard University of its ability to enroll international students if it doesn’t turn over records on international students’ “illegal and violent activities,” the agency said Wednesday.
Noem “wrote a scathing letter demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities by April 30, 2025, or face immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification,” DHS said in a news release.
The certification allows universities to issue forms to admitted international students that they can then use to apply for visas to enter the United States, according to DHS.
CNN has reached out to DHS for additional information.
A Harvard spokesperson said in a statement that the university is aware of the letter, but they stand by their previous statement that they “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”

Me thinks its time for the American Spring. Assad got off too easy.
LikeLike
I pray for that Spring, Joel. Trump is getting ready for it. He has put the colleges on notice that he won’t tolerate protests and that he will do whatever is necessary to shut them down fast. Send in the National Guard, deport foreign students. Strip the tax exemptions from colleges that don’t quash them.
LikeLike
Diane: There is also Miss La La Lee Lou. Not sure of the spelling. Didn’t she grow so many feathers she couldn’t fly any more? CBK
LikeLike
CBK,
I assume you mean Laura Loomer, Trump’s fan girl. The media reported that she spent some time with him, then he immediately fired several high-level national security people. What did she know? Where did her information come from?
LikeLike
Hi Diane: Massive misunderstanding alert . . . I meant a character in one of Dr. Seuss’s books. But let’s get on with it. CBK
LikeLike
Immigrants built this nation. They come with skills, a willingness to contribute and untapped potential. Trump claims he wants the best and brightest to come here, and some of those are likely graduate students in our best universities. Trump’s xenophobic feud is not about excellence. It’s about control over private institutions.
LikeLike
RT, you are right. He wants control over private universities, the power to control their curriculum, their admissions policies, and their disciplinary policies. This is the dream of a fascist.
LikeLike
Joel is correct. “American Spring” is about to bloom at The Ivy Leagues, The Non Ivy Leagues and every campus in between. Imagine the “Government” going into any of our Public Schools and demanding the disciplinary records of students. They would quickly discover just how hard everyone works to hang onto a 🧑🎓 student even when it looks like that individual must surely qualify as a “Lost Cause.”
And of course this is not about discipline code, offensive behavior, social misconduct, peer dispute, picket lines, demonstration policy, anti-semitism, anti-racism or anti any form of mean behavior that no one should be displaying. The mean kids are currently occupying The White House and they are way overdue for serious disciplinary action.
LikeLike
I have no doubt that the lifelong cheater, liar, sexual abuse addict, sadistic sociopath and convicted rapist, fraud and felon is aware of the checks and balanced in the US Constitution dividing the power of government between the three branches.
That’s why the fascist hate monger formed an alliance with the extreme right fascist Heritage Foundation to write Project 2025, for him. The roadmap he is following to strip the powers from Congress and the Justice system with an end goal to become another Putin by another name ruling the United States as a ruthless, brutal dictator.
The deal he made with El Salvador is evidence of that fact. Since he can’t get away with setting up concentration camps in the United States yet, he “made a deal” with El Salvador’s dictator to do it for him.
He also used the primary process with votes from his fanatical fascist MAGA cult to take over the Republican Party and completed that process before the 2024 election explaining why the turnout was millions less than expected for a presidential election with such high stakes.
OUR FREEDOM!
Election: Critics say Conservative efforts to clean voter rolls sows distrust | AP News
LikeLike
I have no doubt that the lifelong cheater, liar, sexual abuse addict, sadistic sociopath and convicted rapist, fraud and felon is aware of the checks and balanced in the US Constitution dividing the power of government between the three branches.
That’s why the fascist hate monger formed an alliance with the extreme right fascist Heritage Foundation to write Project 2025, for him. The roadmap he is following to strip the powers from Congress and the Justice system with an end goal to become another Putin by another name ruling the United States as a ruthless, brutal dictator.
The deal he made with El Salvador is evidence of that fact. Since he can’t get away with setting up concentration camps in the United States yet, he “made a deal” with El Salvador’s dictator to do it for him.
He also used the primary process with votes from his fanatical fascist MAGA cult to take over the Republican Party and completed that process before the 2024 election explaining why the turnout was millions less than expected for a presidential election with such high stakes.
OUR FREEDOM!
Election: Critics say Conservative efforts to clean voter rolls sows distrust | AP News
LikeLike
I agree with your “Yertle the Turtle” prediction Diane. “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.”-Ghandi
LikeLike
Cliff Notes Version.
Yertle really wanted to rule over all he could see by building a throne of stacked turtles beneath him. But the bottom turtle Mack burped & caused the throne to collapse. Yertle fell into the mud which freed all the other turtles.
LikeLike
YES! I read it to my children and grandchildren.
LikeLike
In other news:
Proposed rule change on endangered species triggers alarm for environmentalists
LikeLike
This new rule is DEVASTATING for wildlife, and not just for currently threatened and endangered species.
LikeLike