An afternoon huddle at the White House revealed a double standard that President Donald Trump does not mind wielding against organizations that cross him.
“In your first term, your attorney general apologized to Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS in the Obama administration,” said one reporter. “Why is it OK for the IRS to change the tax status of Harvard because of a policy disagreement you have with that university?” He added, “If that was wrong why are you considering changing the tax status of Harvard?
“Because I think Harvard is a disgrace,” Trump said. “I think what they did was a disgrace. They’re obviously antisemitic. And all of the sudden they’re starting to behave. But when you see where they—what they were saying, what they were doing — when you see the way they took care of events— when you watch that woman, that horrendous president that ruined the image of Harvard, maybe permanently, in the halls of Congress. When you take a look at what happened there, it was horrific.”
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Trump was unclear about the particulars of how Harvard “behaved,” or “what they were saying” and “doing.” And he offered no details on “the way they took care of events,” or seemingly that “woman” who is a “horrendous president.” Alan M. Garber is the current (male) president of Havard who soundly rejected Trump’s demand to jettison diversity programs and accept a political commissar to act as an adjunct of the federal government in Harvard business and education matters.
In the same breath, Trump tried to distance himself from his own recent call to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, however.
“… I’ve looked at—a lot having to do with it—I’m not involved in it,” he added abruptly. “It’s being handled by lawyers. I’ve read about it, just like you did, but tax-exempt status is a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard.”
While personally denying his direct influence in the removal of Harvard’s tax status, Trump also promised he would be directing the IRS to investigate and possibly remove the tax-exempt status of certain non-profits who have angered him, particularly immigrant rights groups and environmental groups. A different reporter asked if he would like to see tax-exempt status removed from, “Immigrant rights groups? Environmental groups?”
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“Could be. Could be. I mean, look, environmental — I have a group named Crew. Crew. Ever hear of it? I think it is c-r-e-w. And they have — the guy who heads Crew — it’s supposed to be a charitable organization, and the only charity they had is going after Donald Trump, so we’re looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things.”
Trump could possibly be planning to target the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) anti-corruption non-profit, or CREW Land & Water Trust, which is a non-profit land trust in southwest Florida working to preserve the 60,000-acre watershed for water, wildlife and public use. If so, the announcement may not be a surprise coming from an administration seeking to significantly limit the Endangered Species Act's power to preserve wildlife habitats by changing the definition of one word: harm.
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