HARVARD HOLDS SWAY: Harvard University rejected demands by the Trump administration to make changes in academics and administration under threat of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. It’s the first of at least seven universities to tell Trump to back off.

    Harvard called the demands illegal. Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, said in a statement, “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”

  The administration responded by freezing $2.2 billion in multiyear grants along with a $60 million contract.

  Trump has been attacking elite universities under the claim of fighting antisemitism on campus and getting rid of diversity, equity initiatives. As he is doing with the federal government, he’s trying to purge the elites of “woke” ideology.

   The Trump administration demanded that Harvard reduce the power of students and faculty members over university affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that academic departments are “viewpoint diverse,” presumably meaning the inclusion of conservatives. 

  The financial consequences for Harvard could be dire. The administration said it’s re-examining $8.7 billion in grant commitments to the university. Garber said, “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.” 

KAFKA WEPT: In a visit to the White House President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said he will not order the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported by the US to prison in his country. President Trump stood by smirking as Bukele rejected the notion of helping to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who had an order of protection from deportation. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said.

  Garcia has not been convicted or even accused of a crime. He was a legal resident of the US swept up by Immigration and Customs then in an administrative error sent to a prison for the most hardened gang criminals in El Salvador. Garcia has said he fled El Salvador to get away from gangs. He has an American wife and child but authorities claim he’s a gang member because he was picked “wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie” 

  The Trump administration has been stonewalling court orders to bring Garcia home … even an order by the Supreme Court. Government lawyers have argued that Garcia is now out of US jurisdiction and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said it is entirely up to El Salvador whether to release Garcia. It’s obvious that Trump isn’t even asking.

  Trump said again that he’s also open to sending American citizens convicted of violent crimes to Bukele’s prison.

FIREWALL: Investigators in Pennsylvania say a closed door in a stairwell may have saved Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family from greater danger in the weekend fire-bombing of the official mansion.

  The suspect, Cody Balmer, 38, has been found to have posted anti-government memes and statements online. He’s accused of using Molotov cocktail firebombs to set the fire that severely damaged parts of the mansion. Balmer said in a court appearance that he’s not taking medications for mental illness and that taking them in the past “led me to different types of behavior.” 

WOMEN IN SPACE: A half dozen celebrity and/or wealthy women safely made a 10 minute 21 second trip to space yesterday aboard the Blue Origin rocket developed under the auspices of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, whose fiancée Lauren Sanchez was one of the space tourists.

  Among the crowd watching the liftoff were celebrities Kris Jenner, actor Orlando Bloom, and Oprah Winfrey. CBS News morning anchor Gayle King, one of the passengers, said afterwards, “And now that I’ve done it, I really do feel I can take on anything, anything.”

  Bezos promoted the flight as a demonstration that would encourage young girls to pursue careers in the sciences and mathematics, although the passengers on yesterday’s flight were there for sightseeing and to experience a four minutes of weightlessness.

 The price of the flight was not published, but the normal deposit is $150,000 … although probably not for Sanchez. Amanda Hess writes for The NY Times that, “If the flight proves anything, it is that women are now free to enjoy capitalism’s most decadent spoils alongside the world’s wealthiest men.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian novelist awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 and who had run for Peru’s presidency in 1990, died at age 89. He wrote about  military dictatorship, corruption, moral compromise, and the cruelty of life in Peru during his time. 

THE SPIN RACK: New York Helicopter Charter, the sightseeing company whose chopper went down in the Hudson River last week killing a family of five and the pilot, has shut down. The company had financial problems, including a 2019 bankruptcy and the repossession of a helicopter. — Costs to Los Angeles County for the recent devastating wildfires are expected to reach $2 billion. — Hungary’s strongman leader Viktor Orban has followed the lead of Donald Trump on what he calls “gender madness.” His ruling party passed a law declaring there are only two sexes, male and female. Orban said, “Now, with the change in America, the winds have shifted in our favor.” — Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is back in a Manhattan court today for a re-trial on charges of rape and a criminal sexual act. The case was overturned on a ruling that the prosecution had brought in testimony from women accusers who were not part of the case.

BELOW THE FOLD: Vice President JD Vance fumbled the college football national trophy during a visit yesterday by the Ohio State Buckeyes.

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