Trump says US colleges could lose accreditation over 'antisemitic propaganda' if he's elected

By Alexandra Ulmer

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Jewish donors on Thursday that U.S. universities would lose accreditation and federal support over what he described as "antisemitic propaganda" if he is elected to the White House.

"Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support," Trump said, speaking remotely to a crowd of more than 1,000 Republican Jewish Coalition donors in Las Vegas.

Protests roiled college campuses in spring, with students opposing Israel's military offensive in Gaza and demanding institutions stop doing business with companies backing Israel.

Republicans have said the protests show some Democrats are antisemites who support chaos. Protest groups say authorities have unfairly labeled their criticism of Israel's policies as antisemitic.

The Association of American Universities, which says it represents some 69 leading U.S. universities, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the United States, the federal government does not directly accredit universities but has a role in overseeing the mostly private organizations that give colleges accreditation.

In his speech, Trump also said he would ban refugee resettlement from "terror infested" areas like Gaza and arrest "pro-Hamas thugs" who engage in vandalism, an apparent reference to the college student protesters.

Under both Trump and Biden, similar numbers of Palestinians were admitted to the U.S. as refugees. From fiscal year 2017-2020, the U.S. accepted 114 Palestinian refugees, according to U.S. State Department data, compared with 124 Palestinian refugees from fiscal year 2021 to July 31 of this year.

While Trump sketched out few concrete Middle Eastern policy proposals for a second term, he painted a potential Harris presidency in cataclysmic terms for Israel.

"You're going to be abandoned if she becomes president. And I think you need to explain that to your people ... You're not going to have an Israel if she becomes president," Trump said without providing evidence for such a claim.

A campaign spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, Morgan Finkelstein, said Harris was a lifelong supporter of Israel and stood against antisemitism. Finkelstein highlighted that Trump in 2022 dined with white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-A-Lago resort and that in 2017 he said there were "very fine people" on both sides of a deadly rally by white nationalists in Virginia.

Harris has hewed closely to President Joe Biden's strong support of Israel and rejected calls from some in the Democratic Party that Washington should rethink sending weapons to Israel because of the heavy Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

She has, however, called for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling the situation there "devastating."

Health authorities in Gaza say more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli assault on the enclave since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Some 1,200 Israelis were killed in the surprise attack and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

The subsequent assault on Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3 million population, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

WISH LIST FOR TRUMP

The Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund says it is spending some $15 million to support Trump by helping bring out Jewish voters in battleground states.

The network has been financially supported by Sheldon Adelson, the late American casino mogul, and his Israeli-born widow Miriam Adelson. RJC members gathered this week for their annual conference at The Venetian Resort, which was developed by Sheldon Adelson's company, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Miriam Adelson is also the lead financier of a super PAC spending group that has said it is looking to raise over $100 million to support Trump.

In a half-dozen Reuters interviews at the conference, attendees broadly voiced three priorities for a potential second Trump term: Expanding the Abraham Accords, pursuing a tougher line on Iran, and either reforming or defunding the United Nations.

The Trump administration in 2020 helped broker the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab nations.

But U.S.-backed plans to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel were put on ice last year as war escalated between Israel and Hamas.

RJC chairman Norm Coleman, who is also a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia in Washington, told Reuters he was still hopeful the Abraham Accords could be expanded under Biden.

"But if it's not done, I would hope that President Trump would do what he did before and play a role in bringing the region together," Coleman said.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis)