It was just a single post on Truth Social, but its echo rings like a cold command from darker chapters of history: President Donald Trump is demanding the “names and countries of origin of all international students” at Harvard University. Not out of academic interest. Not out of concern for safety. But as an expression of authoritarian reflex – the desire to demonstrate control, to instill fear, and to break one of the last strongholds of free education.
The demand came just two days after Federal Judge Allison Burroughs – an Obama appointee – issued a temporary injunction blocking Trump’s attempt to prohibit Harvard from enrolling international students. The ruling was clear: The president’s actions would cause “immediate and irreparable harm” to the university – and violate constitutional rights. But Trump recognizes no limits, neither legal nor moral. Barely was the ruling delivered when he struck back – publicly, demonstratively, in capital letters.
“We want to know who those foreign students are. A reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS,” he wrote. “We want those names and countries.”
It is a demand that resembles more the workings of an interior ministry in a surveillance state than the executive branch of a democratic nation. Which agency is supposed to manage this list? Unclear. What purpose would it serve? Unanswered. But the message is unmistakable: intimidation, mistrust, control. This is not the first time an academic institution has been turned into a political scapegoat – Harvard as a symbol of openness, intellectual diversity, and the refusal to bow to Trump’s monopoly on interpretation.
Kristi Noem, Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security, had just sent a letter declaring that Harvard would be removed from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program “effective immediately.” Overnight, thousands of international students lost their legal residency status. Noem spoke of “consequences,” Harvard of a “blatant constitutional violation.” The reality: a calculated attack on fundamental rights, education, and the lives of young people.
And while the White House remains silent in response to inquiries, Trump publicly juggles numbers and half-truths. He claims that Harvard holds “52 million dollars” – in reality, the university’s endowment is approximately 53 billion. But this isn’t about facts. It’s about the narrative: Harvard as an arrogant elite, hoarding billions and “living off the state.” A classic enemy image, fueled by resentment, populism, and ideological exhaustion.
What is happening here is more than a political dispute. It is a deliberate assault by a president on the spirit of enlightenment. On the idea that education is a global good. That origin is not a flaw but a contribution. And that a university does not belong to the state – but to the truth.
In Donald Trump’s world, however, the rule is this: those who do not submit will be cataloged. Those who resist will be branded. The list he demands is not a bureaucratic matter – it is a symptom. Of a president who prefers counting to understanding. And of a country that must ask itself whether it still recognizes when the line has been crossed.
Maybe one day this story will appear in history books – as a footnote of shame or as a turning point of reason. But for now, it is reality. And it begins with a question: What is a university still worth if it can no longer defend itself against a president who wants to keep lists?
And what kind of president is one who demands exactly that?
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