Harvard professor discusses Trump’s remarks about schools being a ‘liberal mess’

Pinker Discusses Harvard’s Liberal Reputation

Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker acknowledged there’s “a grain of truth” to President Donald Trump’s assertion that Harvard is a “liberal mess.”

In an interview with CBS’ Bill Whitaker on “60 Minutes,” Pinker was asked about Trump’s description of Harvard as a place that predominantly attracts individuals from the “woke radical left.” Pinker responded, “That’s not true, no. I don’t agree with that. I think there should be more voices on the right at Harvard.”

The Trump administration has been focusing on elite universities regarding issues of anti-Semitism. Earlier this year, President Trump cut federal funding to Harvard by over $2.2 billion, claiming the university failed to comply with recommendations from the Federal Anti-Semitism Task Force. However, a Boston judge intervened to block this funding cut in September.

Pinker remarked that it’s not up to President Trump to determine which voices should be heard.

When asked by Whitaker what he believed were the missteps at Harvard, Pinker pointed out a trend of individuals facing backlash for expressing controversial opinions, stating, “I think there are far too many incidents where someone expresses a controversial opinion and gets shamed or canceled.”

He specifically mentioned Carol Houben, a former Harvard professor who taught a course on hormones and behavior. She had reported feeling unsupported by school administrators after discussing her biological sex in a Fox News interview.

A former colleague commented in 2021, expressing that the prevailing ideology seems to prioritize personal feelings over biological facts, asserting, “The reality is that there are two sexes, male and female, and those sexes are specified by the types of gametes we produce.”