Harvard fight illustrates Trump's worldview: If he Attacks, it's your fault

"They're hurting themselves."

In President Donald Trump's telling from the Oval Office on Wednesday (May 28), Harvard University has no one but itself to blame for his administration's swift suffocation of its federal funding.

The "last thing" he wants to do is harm the storied jewel of American higher education, he said. But he had no choice. The university was fighting back.

"Harvard has got to behave themselves," Trump said. "Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper. They've got to behave themselves."

He went on: "I'm looking out for the country and for Harvard."

The president's framing of his administration's aggressive pressure campaign speaks not just to how he sees his efforts to dominate Harvard and what it teaches and who it admits, but also how he views opposition more broadly. It's a constant in Trump's worldview: If he goes after someone or something, it is their fault, not his. They are responsible for his actions. Not him.

For Trump, making an example of institutions and people that push back against him has been paramount since he regained the White House. He wants to send a message that no dissent will be tolerated, lest anyone else try. Crushing opponents sends a message to others: that there is a right way to behave, through capitulation, and a wrong way to behave, which is defending oneself.

Harvard is a test case for how to deal with the White House, administration officials said. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields was blunt: "Work with the president or double down on stupid."

Trump has long viewed conflict as a zero-sum game: He cannot win without someone else losing. That was true before his failed reelection bid in 2020, which thrust him into an even more retributive phase.

Four criminal indictments, several lawsuits and a presidential victory later, Trump has been seeking not just a win, but a humiliation of and control over those who oppose him. And any action he takes is framed as a reaction, a situation in which his hand has been forced.

Trump's issuing of executive orders that go after major law firms? Those are the fault of the firms themselves, Trump's advisers say, for filing lawsuits against him or prosecuting him or hiring people who have opposed him or criticized him or some of his allies. (The sin of one firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, was hard to decipher, beyond that it did not allow one of its partners to take Trump on as a client.)

Trump's calls for two former government officials to be investigated? They did that to themselves, according to his aides. One, Miles Taylor, a former homeland security official, anonymously wrote a New York Times opinion article and a book that were critical of Trump. The other, Chris Krebs, a top cybersecurity official, said the 2020 election was secure, undercutting the president's false claim that it was rigged.

Artists, too, have only themselves to blame for anything punitive done to them, in Trump's telling. They were the ones who chose to criticize him and his policies.

When Bruce Springsteen called Trump "corrupt" and "treasonous" on his European tour, Trump shot back that the musician "ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that's just 'standard fare.'" He continued: "Then we'll all see how it goes for him!"

When Springsteen declined to keep his mouth shut, Trump called for "major investigations" into the New Jersey rock star, as well as Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono.

White House officials dispute that Trump takes a zero-sum approach to every issue, noting his pause on tariffs, such as the delay in imposing a hefty levy against goods from members of the European Union. And they said that it took time for the standoff with Harvard to escalate.

On substance, there are several Republicans and Democrats who share Trump's view that Harvard and other major colleges are long overdue in addressing cultural issues. They welcome a focus on the antisemitism that was on display at some of the campus protests against Israel's response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

But the Trump administration's multifront attack -- which has included a blizzard of investigations and the suspension of billions in federal funding -- has gone far beyond what even many critics had sought.

In the president's view, there is only one right way for the universities to respond. That's the approach taken by Columbia University, which has been more willing to agree to some of the government's demands.

While Columbia is no longer on "the hot seat," Trump said Wednesday, "Harvard wants to fight, they want to show how smart they are, and they're getting their ass kicked."