Professor Philippe Sands says reports of ‘rampant antisemitism' at Harvard university are ‘complete nonsense'
Philippe Sands has dismissed reports of 'rampant antisemitism ' at Harvard University, amid the conflict between the Trump administration and the Ivy League school.
Donald Trump has slashed Harvard's federal funding, after accusing the institution of being too left-wing and of failing to combat antisemitism when pro-Palestinian protests have taken place on campuses.
Sands, a lawyer, author and visiting professor at Harvard Law School, commented on the fallout during The Independent 's News Review event at the 2025 Hay Festival, telling the audience: 'The idea there is rampant antisemitism at Harvard is hopeless. It is just not the situation.'
He added: 'As in any place in the world, there will be examples of antisemitism, no question at all, but the idea it is rampant and all over the place is complete nonsense.'
Sands, along with philanthropist Sigrid Rausing and academic Adam Rutherford, were being interviewed by The Independent 's Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew.
His comments came as part of a discussion on the Trump administration's attack on the US's oldest and wealthiest university. Earlier this month, it was announced that eight federal agencies would terminate a further $450m in grants to Harvard University, due to what officials have framed as inadequate responses to antisemitism on campus.
Those funding cuts came after the administration axed $2.2bn in federal funding to the university, bringing the total financial penalty to around $2.65bn.
'Harvard's campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signalling and discrimination,' read a statement from Trump administration's task force to combat antisemitism. 'This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it's not academic freedom; it's institutional disenfranchisement.'
This week, the Trump administration's antagonisation of the prestigious university escalated further, with the announcement that officials are set to start vetting the social media accounts of visa applicants who plan to attend, work at, or visit Harvard University for any signs of antisemitism.
Harvard has become a punching bag for the administration, after its leadership refused the government's demands for an audit to determine the extent of its 'ideological capture by the radical left'.
Trump's government is blocking Harvard from enrolling international students and is forcing currently enrolled foreign students to leave the university or risk losing their legal status in the US.
The university is suing the US government over both the suspension of its federal funding and the cancellation of its permit to enrol foreign students.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Guardian
22 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Trump bid to ban foreign Harvard students temporarily blocked by judge
Mr Trump's proclamation, issued on Wednesday, was the latest attempt by his administration to prevent the nation's oldest and wealthiest college from enrolling a quarter of its students, who account for much of Harvard's research and scholarship. Harvard filed a legal challenge the next day, asking for a judge to block Mr Trump's order and calling it illegal retaliation for Harvard's rejection of White House demands. Harvard said the president was attempting an end-run around a previous court order. A few hours later, US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued a temporary restraining order against Mr Trump's Wednesday proclamation. Harvard, she said, had demonstrated it would sustain 'immediate and irreparable injury' before she would have an opportunity to hear from the parties in the lawsuit. Ms Burroughs also extended the temporary hold she placed on the administration's previous attempt to end Harvard's enrolment of international students. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard's certification to host foreign students and issue paperwork to them for their visas, only to have Ms Burroughs block the action temporarily. Mr Trump's order this week invoked a different legal authority. If Mr Trump's measure were to survive this court challenge, it would block thousands of students who are scheduled to come to Harvard's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the summer and autumn terms. 'Harvard's more than 7,000 F-1 and J-1 visa holders — and their dependents — have become pawns in the government's escalating campaign of retaliation,' Harvard wrote in a court filing on Thursday. While the court case proceeds, Harvard is making contingency plans so students and visiting scholars can continue their work at the university, president Alan Garber said in a message to the campus and alumni. 'Each of us is part of a truly global university community,' Mr Garber said on Thursday. 'We know that the benefits of bringing talented people together from around the world are unique and irreplaceable.' Harvard has attracted a growing number of the brightest minds from around the world, with international enrolment growing from 11% of the student body three decades ago to 26% today. Rising international enrolment has made Harvard and other elite colleges uniquely vulnerable to Mr Trump's crackdown on foreign students. Republicans have been seeking to force overhauls of the nation's top colleges, which they see as hotbeds of 'woke' and antisemitic viewpoints. Mr Garber says the university has made changes to combat antisemitism. But Harvard, he said, will not stray from its 'core, legally-protected principles', even after receiving federal ultimatums. Mr Trump's administration has also taken steps to withhold federal funding from Harvard and other elite colleges that have rejected White House demands related to campus protests, admissions, hiring and more. Harvard's 53 billion dollar (£39 billion) endowment allows it to weather the loss of funding for a time, although Mr Garber has warned of 'difficult decisions and sacrifices' to come.
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump's tax bill is undermining the foundations of global finance
For decades, investors have been able to rely on a simple truth: the US bond market is a safe place to put money. When wars broke out, economies crashed or other calamities struck, money flowed into US Treasuries, as Washington's bonds are known, to protect wealth. As a result, the US has been able to rely on a ready supply of investors willing to fund the country's ever-increasing appetite for tax cuts and public spending. Investors wanted US debt and the federal government was only too happy to provide it. Not even half a year into Donald Trump's presidential term, however, decades of orthodoxy are being turned on their head. 'The US has generally benefited from demand for Treasuries from overseas investors. It's viewed as the global risk-free asset,' says John Stopford, a fund manager at Ninety One. 'The concern is that a lot of those beliefs or tenets about the US are being called into question, in terms of how reliable, how safe an investment are US Treasuries?' Offshore investors, battered by volatility and bewildered by uncertainty since Trump took office, are becoming increasingly wary of the US bond market. Returns have suffered as Trump's trade policies have weakened the dollar and the president's planned debt splurge has raised questions about just how sustainable US borrowing really is. The latest flash point is Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said would add $2.4 trillion (£1.8 trillion) to the deficit over the next decade. Elon Musk might have hogged the headlines this week with his outbursts against the bill but investors and traders are airing the same concerns, especially as higher deficits mean the US treasury will be asking them to buy more and more of its bonds. 'We're seeing it in the asset management community, some insurance funds, some pension funds, and foreign investors overall as well. It's just more caution in the buying, rather than a full-blown 'sell everything',' says Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities. A crisis in the US bond market, or even just a slow ebbing of investor confidence and faith, could be the most profound and revolutionary legacy of Trump's second term. The US market and its currency might no longer offer the safe haven against risk, nor the anchor for markets worldwide. An end of this financial exceptionalism would mean higher borrowing costs for the US and pose a challenge to the entire American economy model. Moody's became the last major credit rating agency to strip the US of its gold-plated borrower status last month and analysts have raised the prospect of Trump facing his own ' Liz Truss moment ' as investors baulk at his spending plans. For now, concern is centred around where all this fiscal ill-discipline will leave the US in the 2030s and beyond. So investors are shying away from longer-dated Treasuries with terms such as 10, 20 or 30 years, and parking their money in shorter-term bonds that mature in one or two years. 'I see investors who are even cautious about the five to 10-year space,' Goldberg says. If this caution turns to panic, then a meltdown – with worldwide consequences – isn't out of the question. 'If there was a big deleveraging that happened – and there was a big source of selling, whether it's from foreign investors or hedge funds or levered investors or basis investors – it could potentially overwhelm the system,' Goldberg says. Foreign investors are also having to contend with a big drop in the US dollar, which is reducing their returns. 'It's fine to see bond yields rise if the currency is stable or appreciating. That's not what we're seeing at the moment. We're seeing bond yields rise in the US, and actually the currency, on a broad basket, is about 10pc down from its highs last year,' says James Ringer, a Schroders fund manager. The lack of buyers and the potential glut of bonds raises the possibility, or 'tail risk', that the market could cease to function properly. 'That would mean sellers overwhelming buyers,' says Goldberg. This could drive a sharp surge in rates and force an emergency intervention from the Federal Reserve. 'That is the risk going forward – that the system is unable to function if something goes wrong,' he adds. At the moment, there's little prospect of a panicked sell-off – mainly because investors have so few genuine alternatives. America's star may be on the wane but it is still the brightest light in the sky. 'The US is absolutely a mass market in terms of marketable debt. The second and third closest markets are an order of magnitude smaller, so that makes it really difficult for a lot of these investors to really get away from dollars,' says Goldberg. 'There's just no place for them to go.' But equally, with Trump at the helm, nobody is ruling anything out. 'Even if it's a tail risk or something that's unlikely, because it's there at the back of people's minds, potentially they do begin to change their behaviour,' Stopford says. 'They do begin to think, 'OK, well, I should have less exposure to the US, I should have less exposure to the dollar, I should be looking for alternatives that are safer, more reliable.' 'That's not bond vigilantes speculating. That's just people making rational decisions based on concerns about risk.' Scott Bessent began the week by telling the world: 'The United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen.' were meant to reassure. But the sheer fact that the US treasury secretary had to spell out something that has been taken for granted for decades highlights the fact that the fundamentals of the US financial system have been shaken. Whether they go on to crumble depends on what Trump does next.
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Karoline Leavitt weighs in on the Trump-Musk feud
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made it clear that she's team Trump amid the president's nasty public break-up with Elon Musk. One week before, she and longtime Trump aide Margo Martin had posed in the Tesla that's parked outside the White House, which the president said he was purchasing as Musk's electric car company was taking a hit over his MAGA ties and work at DOGE. But on Thursday Leavitt shared one of Trump's Truth Social messages the president dished out about Musk - after first taking on the Tesla and SpaceX CEO in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump had written, 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago.' 'This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It's a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given. If this Bill doesn't pass, there will be a 68% Tax Increase, and things far worse than that,' Trump wrote. 'I didn't create this mess, I'm just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' the president added. Musk's spat with Trump got so brutal on Thursday that he claimed that the president 'is in the Epstein files' - attempting to connect the commander-in-chief with the serial [expletive] who died in prison in 2019. Leavitt pushed back on that too, telling the Daily Mail in a statement: 'This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,' Leavitt added. Trump didn't directly respond to Musk's Epstein charge, instead posting the Truth Social message that Leavitt shared. Later Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters on Musk's Epstein charge as he hosted the National Fraternal Order of Police executive board in the State Dining Room. A source familiar pointed out to the Daily Mail that 'everyone knows President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Palm Beach Golf Club.' 'The Administration itself released Epstein files with the President's name included. This is not a new surprise Elon is uncovering. Everyone already knew this,' the source continued. The source also mused, 'If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hangout with him for 6 months and say he "loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man?"' The Musk-Trump break-up had started over the bill, which is now going through the U.S. Senate, which Musk complained added to the deficit and reversed the work he had done leading DOGE, the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency. But it quickly turned personal once Trump floated that he wasn't sure the relationship between the two billionaires could be saved. 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more, I was surprised,' Trump told reporters as he was seated alongside Germany's leader. The president suggested that Musk was angry - not over the bill ballooning the deficit - but because the Trump administration has pulled back on electric vehicle mandates, which negatively impacted Tesla , and replaced the Musk-approved nominee to lead NASA , which could hinder SpaceX's government contracts. Musk then posted that Trump would have lost the 2024 election had it not been for the world's richest man - him. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk claimed. 'Such ingratitude,' the billionaire added. After the Oval Office meeting Trump took to Truth Social Thursday afternoon and asserted that he had asked Musk to leave his administration and said the billionaire went 'CRAZY!' 'Elon was "wearing thin," I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!' Trump wrote. The president then threatened to pull SpaceX and Tesla's government contracts. 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!' Trump wrote. It ratcheted up even more, with Musk saying he could decommission the only rocket ships that are currently hauling U.S. astronauts and their supplies to the International Space Station. Musk also made the Epstein charge and later said he would back Trump's impeachment, saying he was for Vice President J.D. Vance taking the president's place. Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser of Trump and a leader of the MAGA movement, pushed that the South African-born Musk be investigated - and maybe even deported. Last Friday, Trump had heralded Musk in the Oval Office, gifting him a golden key and giving him a send-off from DOGE, as the billionaire headed back into the private sector. As Thursday evening approached, Trump's Tesla remained parked on West Executive Avenue, just steps away from the West Wing.
