Will Trump Follow Nixon’s IRS Road to Ruin?
On Friday morning, President Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social: “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump is being hailed as a hero for demanding that the IRS bring Harvard University to its knees.
But Trump is following in the footsteps of President Richard Nixon, whose racketeering with the IRS helped pave the way to the collapse of his presidency. Trump is also forgetting the rallying cry of Republican opposition to the Obama regime. Political targeting of nonprofit entities is “the hallmark of authoritarian nations,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor declared in 2014.
Trump’s triumphal tax code decree was a follow-up to an April 15 message he posted on Truth Social: “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
And who has unlimited prerogative to define the “PUBLIC INTEREST”? Donald Trump, of course!
Trump’s Treasury Department formally requested last month that the IRS revoke Harvard University’s tax exempt status. Trump ally Newt Gingrich predicts that the Trump administration is “going to go after a whole bunch” of universities’ tax-exempt status.
This is not the first time that Trump sought to financially torpedo American colleges he disapproved. In July 2020, Trump tweeted:
Too many Universities and School Systems are about Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education. Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status… and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!
Trump’s approved education program doesn’t include standard rules on capitalization. Also, what in hell is an “Act Against Public Policy”?
To understand this controversy, it is important to distinguish between direct government aid and federal tax laws that enable deductions. If the Trump administration seeks to curtail federal funding of colleges across-the-board, that is not a violation of the rights of any specific college. As Connor O’Keeffe argued here on April 23, there are good reasons to end all federal subsidies to universities and colleges.
But permitting a president to seize veto power over the tax status of any individual or organization in the land is a recipe for tyranny. According to the New York Times, “Even an attempt at
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
