(DCNF)—Former State Department official Mike Benz accused Harvard University on Thursday of acting as a central hub for anti-Trump activity, saying the school’s network of academic departments and think tanks has been “weaponized” against President Donald Trump.
The Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to host foreign students, citing a “toxic campus climate” and violations related to antisemitism and foreign funding disclosures. During an appearance on “The War Room,” Benz discussed Harvard’s widespread backchanneling with powerful institutions like the State Department, the Defense Department, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and various multinational corporations and NGOs.
“Virtually every center, institute and department at Harvard is weaponized against the Trump administration at every level. Through their backchanneling with intelligence, through the backchanneling with the State Department, through their backchanneling with the defense sector, through their backchanneling with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, multinational corporations, through their backchanneling with the NGOs,” Benz said.
Benz specifically named the Harvard Belfer Center and called it a “Heart of Darkness” hub within the university. He also pointed to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, both affiliated with the Belfer Center, as ideological architects of these strategies.
“You gave the example of Erica Chenoweth, as well as her co-author of one of her recent books, Maria Stephan. The two of them are both associated with the Harvard Belfer Center. The Harvard Belfer Center is one of these Heart of Darkness places within Harvard that is tightly involved in organizing what they call nonviolent action, which is a total hoax term,” Benz said.
Chenoweth and Stephan say that nonviolent resistance campaigns between 1900 and 2006 were over twice as effective as violent ones. Their award-winning book says such movements succeed by drawing widespread public support and undermining regime power structures.
Benz said the term “nonviolent action,” often promoted by the Belfer Center and similar institutions, is misleading.
“Whenever you say nonviolent action, what they mean is the end stages of a color revolution where violent protesters who are not killing people with machine guns but are rather throwing Molotov cocktails in police cars and breaking glass and setting buildings on fire, but they’re not killing everyone as they do it,” Benz said.
The Trump administration has already slashed more than $2 billion in funding from Harvard and declared the university ineligible for federal grants after it vowed in April not to “surrender” to demands to combat antisemitism on campus. A September 2024 congressional investigation said Harvard failed to impose meaningful punishment on nearly 70 students involved in a multi-day pro-Hamas encampment the previous spring, when demonstrators disrupted classes and occupied a campus building.
Federal investigators accuse Harvard of failing to disclose foreign donations as required by law. Since 2017, the Ivy League university has reportedly accepted $1.1 billion from foreign sources, including over $100 million from China and approximately $1.6 million from the Palestinian territories.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/TheWarRoom)
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