US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to target American universities that are student protest centers, even before his election in November.

Since he took the constitutional oath on January 20, he has taken steps to support his plans, including executive orders. On Monday, TIRAE launched a new TIRADE and threatened to stop federal funding for schools, colleges and universities if they allow “illegal protests.”

Trump took the social truth platform to provide his latest threat, which includes a promise to “Induct” prison.

“The instigators will be imprisoned/or sent permanently to the country they came from. Trump wrote:

But who is targeting, what is Trump so far, can he forced universities to act against student demonstrators, and how can higher education institutions respond?

Who are the intended goals?

The United Nations Ambassador to the United Nations to Elliz Stefanick shared Trump’s statements in a post on X, saying that “anti -Semitism and anti -Israel hatred will not be tolerated on the American campus,” which confirms that the demonstrators supporting the Palestinians and the speech that criticizes Israel are the goals of the president’s threat.

Under the president RealdonaldtrumpColleges and universities will be held accountable. Entity of anti -Israel and anti -Israel will be tolerated in American universities. The promises made, and the reserved promises. potus Realdonaldtrump Whitehouse pic.twitter.com/h9nq1gvjro

– Elise Stefanik (ELISESTEFANIK) March 4, 2025

Trump’s announcement comes after he signed a series of executive orders in January aimed at hostile to universities.

In one of the directives, he pledged to deport foreign university students and employees participating in the protests supporting the Palestinians as part of the campaign.

He also created a work group through the Prosecutor’s Office devoted to combating a letter hostile to the alleged Semitism, and investigating universities that are not doing enough to take strict measures against these words.

Orders and threats come months after the huge protests led by students last spring, with the outbreak of the genocide of Israel in Gaza. The students demanded that the military attack of Israel end, and to end the American support for Israel, and their university to strip the companies with ties with Israel.

The University of Colombia was widely seen as a center for protests, which led to collective arrests and the suspension of students, which ends with the resignation of the university president, Minouche Shafik, after several months.

The demonstrations also spread to other universities, including Harvard and Yale University and the University of California.

Can Trump to force universities legally to stop protests?

“It is complicated,” said Jinin Younis, a lawyer for freedom of expression.

Yunus told Al -Jazeera from the last financing of Trump’s threat: “It is difficult to say that the tweet itself is illegal, because it is not implemented.” “Therefore, it depends on how the administration carried out this threat in particular, and has not yet been given details.”

Radika Sinaith, a legal lawyer in Palestine, said a non -profit organization based in the United States, that executive orders are not binding rules for universities to follow up.

“This executive matter puts a framework for encouraging schools-but he does not-to schools to spy and report their students and their non-citizen employees,” Sinaith told the island forces. “As much as we can say, these will be not binding guidelines without strength or enforcing pressure.”

However, Trump’s directives are very related.

Yunus said: “The strength of these orders lies in its superficial influence,” adding that it clearly aims to silence the first amendment speech.

She said that the fear of the consequences is a rhetoric, some universities may be divided voluntarily on the words that they believe will submit to the financing, and to pressure students and professors alike in silence.

Universities received $ 60 billion in research and development financing in 2023, as they constitute 55 percent of their total budget for scientific and engineering research.

According to Sainath, this is “a more important escalation in McCarthyt tactics from the executive branch on Palestine since October 7, [2023]”.

Michael Chevir Omar Man, Director of Israel Research in Palestine at Dawn, is not profitable, that Trump’s threats are “a new form of oppression across patriotism.”

Omar Man said: “Restricting freedom of expression and expression by cutting state money, or more accurately, which creates a chilling effect by threatening to do so, is a distinctive feature of authoritarian acquisition,” adding that this tactics can be “effective like prolonging invisible political views.”

Are the universities targeted under the Biden administration?

Yes. Universities that witnessed pro -effective protests throughout the country were also targeted in multiple ways during the era of former US President Joe Biden, who was criticizing student camps.

The university presidents, and they, have greatly failed to suppress the demonstrations, which often witnessed the police violently intervene, with videos from different states showing hundreds of students and even the faculty who are arrested.

At the University of Colombia, many deans resigned, as well as Shafik, who resigned as a president after her summoning to the Congress Committee because of allegations that the university failed to protect students and employees from high high.

After interrogation, Shafik allowed the police to enter the campus to arrest students and faced angry calls to resign.

Trump seems to be multiplied by the targeting of universities and students.

Sinath said that the campaign is escalating on the Palestine movement and trying to undermine the constitutional rights of students and employees to speak and organize.

Will threats work?

The demonstrators are not, according to experts.

Omar Man said that the unprecedented support for Palestine on the campus was “very strong specifically because students and faculty members have already faced consequences to speak against the Israeli racist separation and stood in any case.”

Students have continued to speak with Palestine since Trump revealed his executive orders.

Universities, though, are under pressure. This week, Columbia University was forced to emphasize its commitment to “combating anti -Semitism” after the Trump administration said it could withdraw more than $ 50 million of contracts between the university and the federal government.

A statement issued by the federal agencies pointed to “the ongoing inaction in the face of harassment, which is uncompromising for Jewish students.”

However, Omar Man said that the American youth “have never been through violent attempts to bury the nation’s conscience.”

Sainath agreed.

She said: “Students – and faculty members continue to speak, and they are often in a great personal danger, as people did from conscience throughout history.” “Their voices are the key to ending American support to exterminate the ongoing intercourse in Israel in Gaza, and this is why Israeli supporters are doing everything they can to stop this growing movement.”

How can universities respond?

Yunus said it may be difficult for universities to challenge these executive orders legally.

She may “be easier to challenge them in a specific situation,” as soon as the government blocks money or implements policies according to the executive matter.

It is important for schools that “staying on the right side of history here – they do not cooperate and should not cooperate” with these orders.

Sinaith added that universities should resist pressure in order to engage in “racist control campaigns against the Palestinians and protect the right to academic freedom and freedom of expression.”