President
White House Press Secretary
The order on antisemitism targets protesters who violated laws during demonstrations following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, directing federal agencies to review and report within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities and actions available for combating antisemitism, including on college campuses, according to a White House fact sheet on the order.
And it calls for immediate action by the Department of Justice “to quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities” including the removal of “resident aliens who violate our laws.”
The antisemitism order was first reported by the New York Post and the order on school choice by CBS News.
The protests, which engulfed US college campuses, saw activists set up encampments and take over buildings in a bid to force universities to cut ties with Israel over its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas — designated a terrorist group by the US.
University administrators struggled to address the protests, with critics saying they ignored antisemitic intimidation directed at Jewish students and failed to protect them from hate speech and in many cases physical violence. The heads of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned under pressure from lawmakers during congressional hearings.
Trump during the campaign vowed to deport protesters and revoke the accreditation of colleges that did not address anti-Jewish hate speech or violence on their campuses.
The orders Trump is expected to sign Wednesday are part of a flurry of executive action in the first two weeks of his new term as he moves quickly to implement his agenda.
The president is directing the Department of Education to prioritize school-choice programs in discretionary grants and issue guidance on how states can use federal funding to support K-12 scholarship programs, according to a White House fact sheet. It would also order the Department of Health and Human Services to provide guidance on how states can use block grants they receive to promote private and faith-based educational alternatives.
The order will also direct Defense Secretary
The third action aims to prohibit federal funding for what the White House casts as “radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.” The order asks the Education secretary to provide a strategy to the president within 90 days on ending “indoctrination in K-12 education” and it moves to reinstate the 1776 Commission, a project Trump created during his first term, which presented a conservative-oriented view of the nation’s past — one which critics said minimized the role of slavery in US history.
It also calls on the US attorney general to work with state and local prosecutors to file actions against teachers and local school officials “who sexually exploit minors” or promote “social transition” practices without a medical license, according to the fact sheet.
Trump and conservative critics have lambasted what they cast as curricula in schools that are too focused on teachings about race, gender and sexuality and more broadly at diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in academia and government. On his first day in office, Trump signed orders ending DEI efforts in federal government.
It is unclear how the administration can redirect or prohibit federal funding to schools without congressional approval. Trump’s orders which threaten to test the boundaries of his executive powers are likely to face court challenges, as other early actions have.
(Updates throughout with additional details on orders)
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Meghashyam Mali, Magan Crane
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