Understanding Trump, the Harvard-phobe

FILE PHOTOS

There were no Filipino American textbooks when I went to Harvard.

I had to go deep into the stacks at Widener Library to read the unpublished theses of Filipino scholars who were part of a joint Philippine/US history project from the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Without them, I’d have nothing.

At Harvard in the ’70s, there were more Asians who were international students than homegrown native-born Filipino Americans like me. That number is different today but back then, I’d sit with those international students in the dining halls because we had something in common.

We weren’t white. And we were foreign in our own ways, outsiders at Harvard, even though I was an American. We surely weren’t eating at the exclusive Porcellian Club. (It’s a club for the Big Pigs).

But all those experiences added up to me being somewhat lukewarm or less about Harvard for years.

FILE – The Harvard University logo is displayed on a building at the school, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

The upshot: You love saying you went there. You may not love all the things that happened when you went there.

Do I forget the hazing when I was made to carry a pineapple?

As I like to say, for all I’ve talked about Harvard I should have gotten a PhD. Not PTSD.

There was a certain trauma that took place as Harvard and I tried to figure out who we were. How woke would it be? How white would I be?

It wasn’t until I figured it out on my graduation day with a speech I gave from the Memorial Church steps.

I still feel a kinship and indebtedness to the international students, who helped make me feel at home at Harvard.

Students cheer during Harvard University’s commencement ceremonies, Thursday, May 29, 2025 in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

That’s why I admit to feeling a certain pride in seeing the university stand up for this new generation of international students, as well as standing up to what is essentially Trump’s hostile takeover threat of Harvard, a private, not a public school. The pretext of it all being Harvard is too woke and too antisemitic to be Trump-approved.

The allegations are laughable but this is Trump’s M.O.

Understanding Trump

Just remember this rule of thumb: Everything Donald Trump does is either unlawful or unconstitutional.

In other words, he likes to act illegally first, then have courts decide later.

It gives him at least the  time during the judicial determination to make illegal hay.

Is that anyway to run a country? No.

But not enough Americans seem to understand that.

Democracy isn’t about just the actions of the executive branch alone. For the vast majority of policy ideas Trump is pushing, there’s a requirement of approval from the judicial and legislative branches. Don’t let MAGA types tell you the president has unlimited executive power. He does not. But that’s the power grab dynamic we’re in today. Sure there’s checks and balances, Trump just wants all the checks payable to him. That’s the problem.

Let’s start with tariffs.

Donald Trump loves tariffs – those on again, off again, on again taxation instruments that have earned him the acronym,TACO.

That’s not a ploy to get the Latino vote.

TACO stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out,” a term critics have used to describe Trump’s ignorance of international trade politics. It’s an ignorance Trump has used to start a global trade war.

So, on international trade, Trump’s deficient. He only knows slightly more about international students, which he’s used to hating at elite institutions specifically, Harvard – which makes him a Harvard-phobe.

Add them to a Trump Hate List where immigrants are preeminent – which makes him a world class xenophobe.

It’s a short leap from there to target international students, really the best, the brightest and the wealthiest. They pay full-freight. And they are not necessarily migrants, just foreign. They may go back home. They might stay. They are what Trump would call the “good ones.” So why doesn’t he treat them better? Trump’s scrutiny threatens their existence at Harvard, and every institution of higher learning in the US.

International students are from all over the world, but the majority of them in the US are from China. And right-wing nativists already have a natural xenophobic response to them following decades of animus and suspicion toward Chinese academics/research scientists, often unfairly suspected of espionage.

Trump justifies all this hate because he hates antisemitism.  Somehow this makes sense to Trump.

Of course, that doesn’t stop him from using his sycophant, Elise Stefanik, the former member of Congress and Harvard alumnus as his perfect Jewish American human shield to fight his perception of antisemitism at Harvard.

Frankly, Harvard may have made some missteps regarding campus protests since the Hamas bombings on Oct. 7, 2023. But Harvard as an institution is hardly antisemitic.

If you think otherwise, then you should listen to that lengthy standing ovation Harvard graduation attendees bestowed upon  President Alan Garber, a classmate of mine, and a Jewish American. Antisemitism at Harvard? Not the likes of which Donald Trump has ever seen.

But it all serves Trump – or he wouldn’t be bothered. Targeting the woke at Harvard feeds into MAGA’s love of denigrating the elite they aren’t a part of. Add the incubation of international students as potential espionage threats and it keeps conspiracy theorists occupied for months.

Unfortunately, it adds up to more self-induced drama that amounts to waste, fraud and abuse to which Trump is oblivious – because he’s a big-time perp and instigator.

Looking out upon Harvard Yard

Thursday’s commencement coincided with legal proceedings that were real victories for democracy and setbacks for Trump.

The district court in Boston allowed international students at Harvard to maintain the status quo for now.

On another legal matter, the Court of International Trade’s ruling this week nullified the tariffs saying Trump had no authority to issue them.

But then on Thursday, an appeals court reversed the ruling. The price of the reversal, as reported on MSNBC, appears to be an agreement by Trump that if the tariffs were found to be illegal or unconstitutional, there would be refunds due to corporations that pay the tariffs.

“Refund day is coming and it will be the most humiliating day Donald Trump will suffer,” said Lawrence O’Donnell, a former Harvard friend of mine, and a host on MSNBC.

But the final rulings take time, as they are ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. With at least two dyed-in-the wool Trumpers (Thomas and Alito), there’s no question Trump is willing to roll the dice.

Just on Friday, SCOTUS ruled Trump could end humanitarian status for some 500,000 thousand migrants seeking protection from their homelands.

Still, he’s losing on more than 90 percent of the cases so far thanks to those federal district judges who stick to the rule of law and just say no to Trump policies.

They serve as democracy’s speed bumps from the judiciary.

Harvard’s case is just one of many testing Trump’s impulses. But I admit to taking solace as I watched the graduation ceremony online.

That shot of the yard from the podium on the church steps, looking out at the crowd reminded me of the day I was up on stage and spoke to my class. It was an empowering day for me, and though it took a while, I now see it as Harvard’s gift.

The image hits me again when there’s a real call to stand together against a new American authoritarianism.

We all need to take a stand together for the eternal verities of our democracy. We’re all called to show our Crimson Courage.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and stage monologuist. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack. See him at the Marsh/SF, 1062 Valencia St., performing bits from his new “Emil Amok Monologues.”