Over half of Jewish American voters disapprove of President Trump’s efforts to combat antisemitism, according to a new poll.
In the Jewish Voters Resource Center poll, 64 percent said they either “strongly disapprove” or “somewhat disapprove” when it comes to “the job Donald Trump is doing combatting antisemitism.” Thirty-six percent said they either “strongly approve” or “somewhat approve” of his efforts.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration unveiled that it was slashing an extra $450 million in grants for Harvard University, alleging that when it came to fighting against “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment” on campus, the school had failed.
“Harvard’s campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination. This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it’s not academic freedom; it’s institutional disenfranchisement,” White House’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in a prior statement.
In recent months, the Trump administration has targeted higher education institutions over alleged inaction over campus antisemitism and policies around transgender athletes.
Seventy-seven percent of poll respondents said that they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” when it comes to “antisemitism on college campuses,” while 23 percent said they are “not too concerned” or “not at all concerned” on the topic.
On May 6, Columbia University’s acting president said that close to 180 jobs were going to be lost at the school due to funding cuts from the Trump administration.
“Moving forward, we will be running lighter footprints of research infrastructure in some areas and, in others, maintaining a level of research continuity as we pursue alternate funding sources. In some cases, schools and departments are winding down activity but remain prepared to reestablish capabilities if support is restored,” university officials including Claire Shipman, the school’s acting president, said in a message to Columbia’s community.
The Jewish Voters Resource Center poll took place from April 22 to May 1, featuring 800 people who labeled themselves as Jewish voters and plus or minus 3.5 percentage points as its margin of error.