Pentagon to cut ties with Columbia, Yale, Brown and others Hegseth accuses of ‘wokeness’

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Pentagon will forbid members of the military from attending Columbia, Yale, Brown and other universities starting next school year amid a campaign to that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called 鈥渇actories of anti-American resentment.鈥�

Hegseth announced the policy in a video posted to social media on Friday, three weeks after he said the military was cutting ties with . Without citing evidence, Hegseth said the universities have become 鈥渂reeding grounds of toxic indoctrination鈥� that undermine military values.

鈥淔or decades, the Ivy League and similar institutions have gorged themselves on a trust fund of American taxpayer dollars, only to become factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e replaced the study of victory and pragmatic realism with the promotion of wokeness and weakness.鈥�

Hegseth said the ban applies to Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 鈥渕any others鈥� without elaborating. He called for 鈥渃omplete and immediate cancellation of all Department of War attendance,鈥� though it was not clear how broadly it would be applied.

A message seeking further details was not immediately answered by the Pentagon.

As of Friday, Columbia, Brown, MIT and Harvard were still listed as eligible institutions in a Pentagon database for its Tuition Assistance program, which covers the full cost of tuition for active-duty personnel. Harvard had 39 participants in 2023, according to the most recent data, while Columbia had nine and MIT had two.

The earlier action against Harvard aims to block members of the military from attending graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs, according to a statement released at the time. There are still questions about whether it applies to programs such as Harvard鈥檚 Reserve Officers鈥� Training Corps program.

Harvard has offered a series of professional development programs and a small number of degree programs tailored to the Pentagon. Last year, it created a new master鈥檚 degree in public administration for active-duty military members and veterans. Hegseth earned a master鈥檚 degree from Harvard but symbolically returned his diploma in a 2022 Fox 海角社区app segment.

The military offers its officers a variety of opportunities to get graduate-level education, both at war colleges run by the military as well as civilian institutions like Harvard.

Campuses across the Ivy League have been a favorite target of , who accuses them of becoming overrun by 鈥渨oke鈥� ideology. His administration has cut billions of dollars in research funding and attempted a number of other sanctions against the universities, often as part of investigations into allegations that officials tolerated antisemitism on campus.

Hegseth鈥檚 announcement is a rebuke to universities that had appeared to have reached a truce with the administration in recent months. Columbia and Brown were among the earliest universities to sign deals with the White House, agreeing to a range of demands in order to have their federal funding restored.

Harvard is fighting back against such demands, alleging in lawsuits that the government is illegally retaliating against the university for rebuffing its ideological views. Last summer, Trump said he was days away from reaching a deal with Harvard, but negotiations appear to have fallen apart. Earlier this month, Trump said Harvard must to the government as part of any deal, twice what he had previously demanded.

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