US President Donald Trump’s assault on Columbia University and the Jew-hatred threatening America’s education system has thrilled some Jews – but appalled too many others. As with Trump’s decision to move America’s embassy to Jerusalem, I wonder why people don’t realize that applauding some policies gains credibility when objecting to others.
Now, I go even further. All Trump-a-phobes who have called him “antisemitic” without reading Executive Order 14188 – Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, of January 29, 2025 – should be ashamed of themselves. And American Jewish leaders who haven’t bothered reading it should resign.
For the embarrassingly vast Jewish – and pro-democracy, anti-bigotry – majority that ignored the text, Trump’s order vows “to fight anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world... vigorously,” particularly “in schools.” It repudiates the “unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens” following “the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.” The president directs the “head of each executive department” to submit detailed action plans.
And yes, the president directs “the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security” to familiarize “institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3).” That statute bars aliens who, among other threats to Americans, spread “communicable diseases,” incite terrorism, and intend to engage, even “incidentally,” in “any unlawful activity,” especially activities involving “the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means.”
Now, test Trump’s plan to combat Jew-hatred for consistency: meaning yours.
First, the Biden test: Had president Joe Biden issued this executive order, would you object to any word?
Second, the Harris test: If vice president Kamala Harris had won, would she fight Jew-hatred as vigorously, and would America’s universities be scrambling to punish lawbreakers, dismantle DEI, rebalance campus politics, and tone down the demonizing of Jews, Israel, Zionism – along with Americanism and liberalism?
Finally, the Right-Left test: Immigration authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia agitator with a Green Card issued in 2024. Media reports romanticize him as the protesters’ “lead negotiator.” That means he led the goons who harassed pro-Israel students and then invaded Hamilton Hall, injuring custodians, to occupy the building illegally. What if a German-born “lead negotiator” for neo-Nazis called “Hans Himmlerish” misleadingly secured a Green Card, then supported violent Nazi encampments in “Jew York City”? Would Jews and civil libertarians defend him?
THREE PRINCIPLES should guide this debate:
- America and its universities must fight Jew-hatred and educational malpractice;
- America may protect its borders by barring hostile aliens – and not treating them like citizens;
- America must preserve free speech while punishing illegal acts.
Admittedly, the administration is inexcusably sloppy. It should have launched this long-overdue counterattack against activists on more probationary student visas who brazenly broke university rules and American law. Or it should have punished a Green Card-holder convicted of crimes. That would have highlighted the problem: students enjoying America’s hospitality yet menacing citizens and violating American laws.
The complicated feelings around Donald Trump's crackdown on campus antisemitism, Hamas sympathizing
It’s complicated. Even for many of us disgusted by Columbia’s decades-long epidemic of educational malpractice, Trump’s sledgehammer governance again goes too far – yet yields results. Moreover, cutting funding from the less “woke,” less politicized hard sciences is counterproductive. And while America may deport law-breaking alien agitators, presidents should handle these cases responsibly, without tweets sneering “Shalom Mahmoud” or “Shalom Columbia.”
On November 9, 2023, MIT’s President Sally Kornbluth reported that although pro-Palestinian protesters violated university rules by “disrupt[ing] the work of the institute,” she would not suspend students as mandated. Fearing that these hoodlums might have “visa issues,” she issued lighter punishments, protecting them from “collateral consequences.”
Five months later, dozens of Columbia University professors donned safety vests to “protect” their students at the encampments. Because none of those teachers escorted even one harassed Jewish student across campus, they selected between their “good” students worth protecting and the unworthy Jews, just as MIT showed that rules don’t apply to anti-Jewish protesters whom they chose to protect from the consequences of their actions.
Clearly, too many universities have abdicated their educational values, moral responsibilities, and legal obligations to protect all students, including Jews. That’s why we should welcome headlines proclaiming “After Columbia arrests, international college students fall silent.” Punishments, applied justly, wisely, appropriately, inhibit bad behavior and protect good people.
If students on special visas respect the law, their privileges to speak freely won’t be assailed. But, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained, America should penalize aliens who cross the line from legitimate protest to law-breaking, or who call, as Khalil’s organization CUAD does, for Hamas’s success, seek “instruction from militants in the Global South,” and “fight... for the total eradication of Western civilization.” “If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in,” Rubio explained. “And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke [your visa] and kick you out.”
In short, you can criticize Trump and protect free speech, yet still thank President Trump for saying: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
That’s not about squelching speech. It’s about respecting the law – and keeping America from becoming like Canada or Europe.
The writer, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His latest books, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath, were just published.