Edited by: TJVNews.com

In a bold and highly publicized interview on Fox News, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)—a Harvard alumna and chairwoman of the House Republican Conference—voiced unequivocal support for President Trump’s call to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status over what she described as “decades” of systemic antisemitism. As reported by the Jewish News Syndicate, Stefanik’s remarks call attention to a growing Republican push to hold elite academic institutions accountable for what lawmakers see as a failure to address campus antisemitism.

“One hundred percent, President Trump did the right thing,” Stefanik declared during her interview with Maria Bartiromo. “This is an issue that I have been the leader on in the House, and it takes a strong president to deliver zero tolerance when it comes to antisemitism.” Her comments reaffirm the GOP’s growing alignment behind Trump’s proposal to use the federal government’s tax and funding levers to combat antisemitic hostility in higher education.

Stefanik pointed to Harvard’s own task force report as proof that the university’s problems with antisemitism are neither new nor isolated to recent campus protests against Israel. According to the JNS report, Harvard’s report acknowledges that Jewish students have faced discrimination across multiple levels of university life—including biased curricula, ideologically driven professors, and inadequate enforcement of anti-discrimination rules.

“The reality is, if you look at the report that Harvard released from its task force, this is a systematic issue that has happened not just since Oct. 7 but over decades at Harvard,” Stefanik emphasized. “Whether it’s the curricula, whether it’s the professors, or whether it’s the university’s failure to enforce the rules.”

Her remarks highlight mounting scrutiny of Ivy League institutions since the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel, which triggered a wave of pro-Hamas and anti-Israel campus activism across the United States.

Stefanik extended her criticism beyond Harvard, placing Columbia University on what she described as a “bad list” for its own record on combating antisemitism. JNS has reported on multiple anti-Israel demonstrations and hostile classroom environments at Columbia, where Jewish students say they have felt physically unsafe and intellectually marginalized.

“In the state of New York, there is antisemitism raging in our streets,” Stefanik added, directing her rebuke at Governor Kathy Hochul. “And there needs to be a zero tolerance policy from the governor of New York, like there is from the President of the United States.”

The failure of local and state leaders to enforce meaningful consequences for antisemitic behavior—whether on campuses or in public protests—has become a flashpoint for Jewish advocacy organizations. Stefanik’s remarks are part of a broader GOP campaign to tie Democratic inaction on antisemitism to issues of public safety, civil rights, and the federal funding of noncompliant institutions.

Stefanik, who had previously been Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before he withdrew her name to keep her in Congress, has now emerged as one of his strongest allies in the fight against academic antisemitism. “Trump absolutely is taking the correct action,” she said. “And not all schools are making the same choice as Harvard.”

While some institutions have taken swift disciplinary action or revised guidelines to protect Jewish students, others—particularly Ivy League schools—have been accused of turning a blind eye to antisemitic rhetoric under the guise of free speech.