Breaking Silence, Former University President Claudine Gay Blasts Harvard’s ‘Compliance’ With White House Demands

In a rare address two years after her resignation, former University President Claudine Gay issued a blistering rebuke of Harvard in Amsterdam on Sept. 3, accusing her successor of surrendering to Donald Trump.

Gay, the University’s shortest-serving president, warned in an address at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study that Harvard was adopting a stance of “compliance,” according to a recording shared with The Crimson.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 has been engaged for months in a legal back-and-forth with the Trump administration over federal funding and international enrollment. Though Garber rejected Trump’s demands to influence faculty hiring and curriculum in April, he soon went back to the negotiating table. And Harvard has taken steps that mirror the administration’s demands since the spring — such as closing its diversity offices and shaking up leadership at programs studying the Middle East.

“The posture of the institution seems to be one of compliance,” Gay said. “This is distressing, not only for those of us who are on campus and facing the consequences directly, but also for all of those in higher ed who look to Harvard for leadership and guidance.”

Gay also weighed in on the terms of a possible settlement with the Trump administration, urging Harvard not to pay the $500 million that Garber reportedly was open to in August as part of a potential deal. Those talks have since stalled.

“The number of $500 million is completely arbitrary and it will solve nothing,” Gay said. “There is no justification.”

Gay’s own tenure was filled with unprecedented pressure from Washington. International backlash over Harvard’s response to Hamas’s attack on Israel and a student group statement placing blame on Israel created a perfect storm for a leadership crisis. She resigned in January 2024 after stumbling during questioning by a congressional committee and facing allegations of plagiarism in her scholarship.

Former presidents traditionally reserve criticism of their successors, but in the speech, Gay was sharply critical of Garber, who served her second-in-command as provost in 2023. Though she did not cite specific cases, Gay condemned recent program changes. Those have included suspending its partnership with the largest university in the West Bank, rebranding diversity initiatives, and removing faculty and staff from positions at centers studying the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“There has been an elimination of programs, offices, activities that, for at least 20 years, the University has insisted represent institutional imperatives,” Gay said to hundreds of NIAS affiliates. “But now they’re gone.”

“At best, that’s disorienting, and at worst, it really undermines trust in the institution,” she added.

A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

Prior to the talk, Gay had avoided public statements on Harvard’s political pressures. She did not join an April letter that condemned the Trump administration’s attacks signed by nearly 90 former university presidents, including former Harvard presidents Derek C. Bok and Drew Gilpin Faust.

In fact, since 2023, she has appeared in public very rarely — once to accept an award from the Harvard Black Alumni Society, and again to moderate a book talk with a friend, the anthropologist Rich Benjamin.

But in the Netherlands, Gay pulled no punches in her condemnation of the Trump administration, accusing the federal government of “destroying knowledge institutions because they are centers of independent thought and information.”

“I would encourage us all to take note of the throughline of misdirection that has been a central feature of this political moment, getting us to argue about supposed excesses of academic jargon and excesses of the progressive left,” she said. “It’s all about getting us to focus on that and not paying attention to the power grab that is underway.”

Beyond Trump, Gay argued that universities have “invited” undue influence by allowing donors to shape academic life.

“Administrators imagine opposition and act accordingly, a form of institutional self-censorship that preserves the appearance of independence while undermining acceptance,” she said, briefly condemning Harvard for its ties to disgraced child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as a case study.

Harvard’s biggest donors were especially vocal during Gay’s final months in office, protesting her response to protests by withholding donations and calling for her resignation. Garber and Penny S. Pritzker ’81, chair of the governing board, have regularly confided in high profile donors in responding to the White House since Trump took office.

Gay pointed to protests over the war in Gaza and efforts to expand diversity and inclusion, saying public ultimatums have become “a central feature” of donor influence in higher education.

“By going public, they force institutions to choose between donor preferences and public integrity,” Gay said.

“And when the stakes are that transparent,” she added, “there’s a good chance — though not a guarantee — that integrity will prevail.”

Correction: September 25, 2025

A previous version of this article referred incorrectly to the Black Harvard alumni group that presented Claudine Gay with an award. It is the Harvard Black Alumni Society, not the Harvard Black Alumni Association.

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.