Trump Weighs In On Disgraced Harvard President Claudine Gay - 'Set Harvard Back 50 To 100 Years'

On Wednesday, leading Republican presidential candidate and 45th President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to weigh in on the recent resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay after months of turmoil that plunged the prestigious university into a spiral of reputational destruction.

"Claudine Gay has set Harvard back 50 to 100 years," Trump wrote on his social media platform. "Other than that, she has done a great job!!!

President Gay's resignation came after being in office a little over six months, and this is despite the university's highest governing body, The Corporation, giving its full support to Gay to retain the presidency. Despite this endorsement, however, Gay stepped down from the most prestigious job in academia after backlash from many in the corporate media and students themselves following her repeated mistakes, as reported by The Harvard Crimson.

During her congressional testimony last month, Gay said that university students who chant genocidal slogans do not break school codes of conduct, but instead, their chants would have to be evaluated in "context" to determine if they deserved punishment for calling for the genocide of Jewish people. Making matters even worse for Gay was revelations, uncovered by journalist Christopher Rufo, that she engaged in extensive plagiarism, a fact that has been reportedly known since October but has only recently come into the public eye. 

"It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president," the embattled Dr. Gay wrote to the Harvard community earlier this week announcing her resignation. "I believe in the people of Harvard because I see in you the possibility and the promise of a better future. These last weeks have helped make clear the work we need to do to build that future—to combat bias and hate in all its forms, to create a learning environment in which we respect each other's dignity and treat one another with compassion, and to affirm our enduring commitment to open inquiry and free expression in the pursuit of truth." In a follow-up op-ed in The New York Times, Gay attempted to claim that she was ousted by racist conservatives who pushed lies.

As reported by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Gay accused her detractors of pushing lies and racist stereotypes in order to take her down. "Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument. They recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament. They pushed a false narrative of indifference and incompetence," she alleged. "I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others. Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field."

While the accusations of plagiarism were too much for the black academic to withstand, Harvard's governing body is likely to allow her to retain the nearly $900,000 a year salary she received before taking the top spot in 2023. In 2021, Gay earned $879,079 as the dean of the Arts and Sciences department, per The Harvard Crimson. 

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