'We had riots in Harlem': Observers puzzled by Trump’s answer to question about 'Harvard'

Critics reacted to President Donald Trump’s interview at a NewsNation town hall hosted by news anchor Chris Cuomo, former entertainer Bill O’Reilly, and sports broadcaster Stephen A. Smith.

During Trump’s phoned-in interview Smith asked the president about his administration’s push to remove federal money from Harvard.

“It’s interesting that you brought up Harvard because when people think about Harvard, where they’re basically talking about is that they’re asking what you say to those who view your actions as an attack on academic freedom rather than a defense of fairness,” Smith said. “What do you say to that?”

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The president’s response, however, was about “Harlem.”

“Well, I say this. We had riots in Harlem, in Harlem, and frankly, if you look at what’s gone on, and people from Harlem went up and they protested, Stephen. And they protested very strongly against Harvard. They happened to be on my side.”

Rather than saying he had misunderstood the question, Trump plowed ahead with new claims on his Black support.

“You know, I got a very high Black vote. You know that. Very, very high Black vote. It was a very great compliment. I did criminal justice reform. I did opportunity zones for one of the greatest economic deals ever for the Black and Hispanic community. I got tremendous– they agree with what I’m doing with respect to Harvard. Harvard gets four, five billion dollars a year from the United States government in the form of grants. And they have $53 billion, yet they do not treat the people right. They take the foreign students. Nobody knows where they come from, and they viciously hate our country.”

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The president eventually slid into addressing college grant money, but insisted “if we’re gonna give grant money, we want people in that school that love our country, not people that are gonna hate our country. They run a bad operation up there, and we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Reaction on X was colorful with YIMBYDems co-founder Armand Domalewski marveling that “Trump somehow hallucinated that people in Harlem rioted to support his crackdown on Harvard?”

DOJ/DHS Obama appointee Eric Columbus appeared horrified, re-tweeting as much of Trump’s errant response as X would allow.

Pollster Matt McDermott argued: “If Biden was asked a question about Harvard and went on a long rant about Harlem, it would be front page news and Republicans would be drawing up articles of impeachment. Trump is suffering severe mental decline and it’s about time it gets the attention it deserves.

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Digital media company The Tennessee Holler similarly did not hide it’s low regard: “Stephen A Smith asks about Trump’s attack on Harvard’s academic freedom… and Trump immediately starts ranting about how well he does with Black people.”

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