The relationship between Harvard and two alumni appointed to key positions in Donald Trump’s administration has been marked by tension and public clashes. R-NY Elise Stefanik ’06 and Peter Hegseth ’13 have criticized the University on multiple occasions, basing their criticisms on what they view as Harvard’s liberal agenda.
Stefanik, nominated as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, played a prominent role in the hearing of former Harvard President Claudine Gay focusing on the investigation of antisemitism on campus. Stefanik fired a series of questions at Gay during the hearing, ending with a call for Gay’s resignation.
“Two down. One to go.” Stefanik wrote on X following Gay’s official resignation, which Stefanik proudly took credit for, stating that “this accountability would not have happened were it not for the very clear, moral questions at the hearing.”
When asked about the hearing and Stefanik’s involvement, an anonymous Harvard freshman commented, “I do think that President Gay needed to resign. I think that her responses to Stefanik’s questions were not okay, honestly, and I’m glad that the questions were direct enough to make the moral issues with how Harvard handled the conflicts on campus clear.” However, the freshman opposed the skewed criticism directed at Gay’s testimony. “I don’t agree with how she spun it into this idea about Harvard’s liberal agenda. The idea that what former President Gay said during her hearing had something to do with Harvard wanting to please the far-left, or whatever, I just think is just completely made up.”
Intensifying her stance against the University, on Dec. 5, 2023, Stefanik wrote an article for The Harvard Crimson titled “Harvard Must Find Its Moral Clarity.”
“Harvard University has been so corrupted by its apparent desperation to appease the far-left that its moral compass has been long forgotten,” she wrote in response to protests regarding the Israel-Hamas war on Harvard’s campus. “Harvard alumni and students are well aware that the University stifles free speech.”
“I’m not surprised,” the same Harvard freshman continued when asked about Stefanik’s public statements against Harvard. “I think that people who are part of this office and who subscribe to Trump’s agenda are necessarily going to put down institutions that appear to disagree with them, or institutions that are more supportive of fact than fiction.”
The Harvard community has previously explicitly expressed their disagreement with Stefanik, such as by removing her from the Harvard Institute of Politics’ Senior Advisory Committee in 2021. Stefanik’s removal was prompted by her actions following the 2020 presidential election, where the IOP pointed to her baseless claims about voter fraud and her inaccurate statements regarding related court decisions. Stefanik declined an initial offer from the IOP to step aside, at which point she was removed. Despite this, she called her removal “a rite of passage and badge of honor.”
“The decision by Harvard’s administration to cower and cave to the woke Left will continue to erode diversity of thought,” Stefanik wrote following her removal. “The Ivory Tower’s march toward a monoculture of like-minded, intolerant liberal views demonstrates the sneering disdain for everyday Americans and will instill a culture of fear for students.”
While the Harvard Institute of Politics may not have agreed with Stefanik’s behavior, Stefanik is likely to be confirmed when Trump takes office, given the new congressional Republican majority.
Like Stefanik, Hegseth is no fan of his alma mater. In a Fox & Friends segment, the Harvard Kennedy School alumnus and Secretary of Defense nominee made a point of voicing his discontent, writing “RETURN TO SENDER” across his HKS diploma and “Critical Theory” University over “Harvard.”
“I hope this is a statement that as conservatives and patriots, if we love this country, we can’t keep sending our kids and elevating them to universities that are poisoning their minds,” Hegseth said in the segment after destroying his diploma. “And I may have survived it, and thank goodness.”
He continued, “But a lot of kids go there and buy into ‘critical theory university,’ and that’s how we get future leaders, Supreme Court Justices, Senators, others, who see America as an evil place. And Harvard is a factory for that kind of thinking.”
Hegseth’s tirade against Harvard has gone beyond the Fox & Friends segment. In his book American Crusade, he urges his readers to stop supporting the University, citing his reasoning as an inability to continue supporting Harvard’s “leftist cause.”
“I honestly think it’s disappointing to see people like Hegseth who have been elected as leaders of our country denouncing the very place that helped them get where they are,” said an anonymous Harvard junior. “I think that Harvard allows students the space to make their own decisions, and that idea that we’re all brainwashed or being poisoned is just so far from the truth. I think I’m capable of forming my own opinions, and I know everyone else here is too.”
Hegseth’s confirmation prospects are less certain than Stefanik’s. His nomination triggered immediate backlash, with critics pointing to his lack of experience and concerning history regarding his treatment of women. In 2017, Hegseth was accused of sexual assault, though no charges were filed due to insufficient evidence. While he was not formally prosecuted, a recent email from his mother written in 2018 uncovered by The New York Times shed new light on his potentially troubling behavior.
“You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego,” Hegseth’s mother wrote. “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
She finishes the email with a sobering line, telling Hegseth: “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” Following the publication of the email, Hegseth’s chances of confirmation have sharply declined.
The ongoing conflicts between Harvard and its cabinet-nominated alumni, Stefanik and Hegseth, show no signs of slowing. With both potentially poised for prominent roles in Trump’s administration, their criticisms of the University will likely remain in the public eye and continue to fuel further controversy.
Sophia Ghafouri ’27 (sghafouri@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.