Trump officials blame mistake for setting off confrontation with Harvard

Harvard University received an email letter from the Trump administration last Friday, which included many demands about hiring, admission and curriculum that school officials decided that they had no choice but to take a White House.

The university announced its intentions on Monday, which launched a tectonic war between the country’s most famous universities and the US president. Then, almost Immediatyly immediately. That is, a great call came from a Trump official.

The official told Harvard that the White House Task Force should not be sent to the region on April 11 and should not be “unauthorized”.

The letter was sent by the Acting General Council of Health and Human Services, Sean Kavini, according to three others, who were briefed on the matter. Kevini is a member of the Antisalism Task Force.

It is unclear what was indicated last Friday. The three men said that their content was authentic, but there were various accounts within the administration how it was wrong. Some people in the White House believed that according to the three men, they were sent ahead of time, who requested not to disclose their name because they did not have the option of publicly talking about internal debates. Other administration members believed that the purpose was to circulate among the Task Force members rather than send Harvard.

But his time was fruitful. The letter arrived when Harvard officials believed they could still stop the conflict with President Donald Trump. Over the past two weeks, Harvard and Task Force engaged in a dialogue. But the demands of the letter were so high that Harvard concluded that a deal would eventually be impossible.

After Harvard publicly complained of demands, the Trump administration increased the pressure, frozen the school in the federal fund, and warned that his tax exemption was at risk.

A senior White House official said the administration stands with the letter, calling it a decision to publicly complain of the university’s decision, and the administration has been accused of bringing up and not having a debate.

“It was a corruption by Harvard’s lawyers that they should not pick up the phone and do not call members of the Anti -ism Task Force, whom they have been talking about for weeks,” said May Melman, a White House senior policy strategy expert. “Instead, Harvard went into a hunting campaign.”

Nevertheless, there is a possible way to resume the conversation if the university is in addition to other measures, according to Trump’s wishes and apologizes to his students for promoting campuses where counter -ism was present.

Could not comment. In a statement, a spokesman for the Anti -ism Task Force said: “The task force, and the entire administration of Trump, are locked in the lock to ensure that the companies that receive taxpayers are following all civil rights laws.”

Harvard pushed back the White House claim that he should have examined the administration’s lawyers after receiving the letter.

Harvard said in a statement on Friday, “The letter was signed by three federal officials, which was placed at the official letter head, sent by a senior federal official’s email inbox and sent on April 11, promised,” Harvard said in a statement on Friday. “The recipients of such correspondence by the US government – even when it contains clean goats that are surprised to exceed their threshold – do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”

The statement added: “It is not clear to us that the recent words and actions of the government, there were mistakes, or what the government actually means to do and say. But even if this week’s operations will yield real -life results on students and employees and” the US has a position of higher education in the world. “

The letter surprised Harvard not only because of the nature of the demands, but was sent because when the university leadership and he hired him to deal with the administration, he was sent to end the complete dispute with Trump.

For two weeks, Harvard’s lawyers, William Burke and Robert Hover, as a Trump official, heard as a widespread stroke, explaining the administration’s concerns about how the school had dealt with society and other issues.

There were three lawyers in the direction of the dialogue administration: Josh Grinibam, a senior official of the General Services Administration. Thomas Wheeler, Acting General Counselor of the Department of Education; And Kevini.

The backward administration lacked details about what Harvard wanted to do. The Trump administration’s lawyers said they would send a letter to Harvard last Friday that further details were presented.

The letter was not reached by the end of the work day on Friday. Instead, overnight, Harvard’s lawyers received a letter, which was sent to an email from Kevini, which was much different from school expectations.

It lists a series of demands that will give students and educational lives a new look that Harvard can never be pleased. On Monday, Harvard publicly said she could not work with them.

Shortly afterwards, Gronbam called a Harvard lawyer, according to two people who know the calls. Earlier, he said that he and the wheeler did not give the authority to send a letter. One said that after that, Grun Bam changed his story slightly, saying that the letter should be sent at some point, not on Friday when the dialogue between the two sides was still constructive.

Grunbam did not respond to the commenting message.

After Monday, Harvard’s corporation and senior leaders were briefed on Grun Bam’s claim that the letter should not have been sent. The briefing convinced many of the Harvard party that the letter had made a mistake, three men aware of the matter.

Harvard officials, including several people worked in government in their career, were surprised to find such an important letter – with the signatures of three top officials at the bottom, with the logo of three government agencies.

But at that time, there was no way for Harvard to have already been kept in motion. The university had already announced that it would reject the demands of the letter. And despite claiming that this letter should not have been sent, the Trump administration did not withdraw it.

In response to Harvard’s decision to fight, the White House announced that Trump was freezing $ 2.2 billion in a grant. Within a day, he was threatening to cancel Harvard’s tax exemption.