Published in the Washington Times
Within the past two months, domestic terrorists have been accused of firebombing the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, murdering two individuals outside a Jewish museum in Washington and using an improvised flamethrower at a rally in Boulder, Colorado, that was held to support bringing home Israeli hostages.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class 2025 class president hijacked her commencement speech to smear Israel’s military as “genocidal,” and Princeton launched a campaign to protect those promoting campus antisemitism from consequences.
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These developments are symptoms of the Jew hatred that consumed Nazi Germany. Today, it threatens America’s values of peace, security and tolerance. Thankfully, the Trump administration’s response stands in sharp contrast to the usual bland statements and empty promises.
In the past two months, I’ve had direct contact with leaders at the Justice Department, including Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Leo Terrell, senior counsel and head of the Justice Department’s Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. I also provided input to officials at the Education Department, members of Congress such as Rep. Tim Walberg and senior staff at the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Additionally, I’ve consulted with Paula White and Jennifer Korn at the White House Faith Office, as well as Martin Marks, liaison to the Jewish community.
What unites them all is a shared determination to act decisively. And their actions are already matching their words. The Justice Department filed hate crime charges within hours of the Boulder attack. The Education Department notified Columbia University’s accreditor that the school would be decertified unless it complied with anti-discrimination laws. The administration not only suspended billions in funding to noncompliant universities, but is also withholding foreign student visas from Harvard. Meanwhile, Mr. Walberg warned that Congress may take legislative action against schools that enable antisemitism.
President Trump’s green light for Israel’s military action against Iran fits into this broader commitment. He is continuing and now surpassing his first-term efforts to combat antisemitism. Then, he extended Title VI Civil Rights protections to Jewish students, affirmed the legality of Jewish communities in Judea, challenged antisemitism at the United Nations and worked to halt Iranian nuclear ambitions and funding for Palestinian terrorism.
In contrast, the Biden administration reversed course. It rejoined the very UN bodies Mr. Trump exited due to antisemitism, tried to return to the failed Iran nuclear deal and restored aid to the Palestinian Authority, despite its continued “pay-to-slay” policy.
While the Biden White House did create a National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, it largely amounted to lip service. It attempted to portray antisemitism as a purely right-wing problem, excluded many respected Jewish voices and partnered with groups such as the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), which itself fuels antisemitism. When the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre triggered a wave of antisemitic violence in America, the strategy did nothing to mobilize a meaningful response.
Worse, the Biden administration began balancing support for Israel with harsh, one-sided criticisms of the Jewish state’s response to terrorism, even as Israeli hostages remained in captivity. Persident Biden’s team paired its antisemitism plan with a new one on “Islamophobia,” a term often used to smear critics of Hamas and other terror groups. As Mr. Biden’s own antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, later admitted, there were “too many moments that were met with silence.”
Now, under the Trump administration’s renewed leadership, universities and their defenders are scrambling to explain why “free speech” suddenly includes incitement to antisemitic hate crimes. The hypocrisy is staggering. Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status in the 1970s for banning interracial dating. Today’s schools demand taxpayer support while enabling mobs that harass and harm Jewish students.
In the early 20th century, Ivy League schools imposed quotas to keep out Jews and other minorities. It is a disgrace that institutions like my own alma mater have regressed to that dark legacy. But there is hope in action. The Trump administration is demonstrating a serious, zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism, one that has been missing for too long.