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The Government is never wrong.

A Triumph of Trump's Will!

April 21, 2025
Trumps Harvard fiasco underscores the White Houses incompetence crisis

It started with a weird letter. On April 11, Harvard University officials received a series of outlandish written demands from the Trump
administration, including a request to install outside auditors who would monitor the schools academic departments.

The university realized that failure to comply with the ridiculous demands would result in governmental punishment. But left with little choice,
Harvard balked anyway.

The retaliation was swift: Immediately after Harvard said it would not
comply with the apparent extortion attempt, the Trump administration froze
$2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard. (There are federal
requirements in place when imposing financial penalties like these, and the Republican White House appears to have ignored those requirements. ) The Department of Homeland Security secretary also canceled nearly $3 million
in agency grants to Harvard, and at Trumps behest the IRS reportedly began scrutinizing the universitys tax-exempt status.

But what if the match that lit this fuse was dropped in error? The New York Times, citing multiple sources, reported that the original letter to
Harvard should not have been sent and was unauthorized.

Its content was authentic, the three people said, but there were differing accounts inside the administration of how it had been mishandled. Some
people at the White House believed it had been sent prematurely, according
to the three people, who requested anonymity because they were not
authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions. Others in the administration thought it had been meant to be circulated among the task
force members rather than sent to Harvard.

If the administrations letter should not have been sent, was the White
House prepared to retract it? Actually, no: Not only did a senior White
House official tell the Times that the administration was standing by the letter, the same official went on the record to say it was malpractice for Harvards lawyers not to call administration officials about the contents of
the ridiculous letter.

Or put another way, the White House effectively argued, This mess is
Harvards fault for not realizing that we shouldnt have sent our absurd correspondence.

Harvard representatives issued an official response of their own, noting
that the original letter was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal
official and was sent on April 11 as promised. The university added,
Recipients of such correspondence from the U. S. government even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach do not question its authenticity or seriousness.

Whats more, even if the April 11 letter was sent in error, that hasnt
stopped the Trump administration from scrapping grants to Harvard in
legally dubious ways amid reports that the White House might yet pull additional federal funds from the school.

I wont pretend to know what might happen next in this multifaceted fiasco,
but the apparent fact that the Trump administration accidentally sent its threatening demands to Harvard a point the White House is not contesting
is emblematic of Team Trumps broader incompetence crisis.

Indeed, its hard to even know where to start compiling a list. The Signal
chat scandal was obvious evidence of the administrations incompetence, but
so was Team Trumps decision to fire important government employees it
scrambled to try to rehire.

Alas, we can keep going. When Donald Trump and his team disclosed Social Security numbers while releasing documents related to the John F. Kennedy assassination, it was a reminder that this White House has a competence problem. When the president and his team sent non-criminals to a prison in
El Salvador while falsely claiming that they were gang members, it was a reminder that this White House has a competence problem.

When Team Trumps DOGE operation repeatedly stepped on its own tail,
including an instance in which it confused $8 billion and $8 million, it
was a reminder that this administration has a competence problem. When the White House royally screwed up its Office of Management and Budget spending freeze memo, it was a reminder that it has a competence problem.

The common thread tying together too many of the developments surrounding Trumps White House: These guys just dont seem to have any idea what theyre doing.

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