Columbia Submits to Trump, ICE Eyes Cornell Protest Leader, and Schumer’s Book Gets Dismal Reviews
A white flag over Morningside Heights: Columbia University is still a long way away from restoring its financial relationship with the federal government. But it agreed to a series of demands on Friday that the Trump administration set forward as "preconditions" for long-term talks on the restoration of more than $430 million in federal funds.
In a memo to administrators, Columbia rattled off the new Trump-imposed "rules and policies": It will apply "consistent, rigorous, and effective disciplinary actions for violations of University Rules"; it will ban masks used to conceal student protesters' faces; it will deploy 36 new "special officers" to arrest individuals on campus "when appropriate"; and it will launch programming this spring for a campus hub in Tel Aviv.
Interim president Katrina Armstrong addressed the move in a Friday evening letter, stating that it is "a privilege to share our progress and plans." She also said she expects "Columbians to engage in robust debate and discussion about our way forward." So do we—and we'll bring you updates.
READ MORE: Columbia Caves To Trump in First Stage of $430 Million Funding Fight
Bye bye bye: Momodou Taal obtained a student visa to study at Cornell as he publicly called for "the end of the US empire in our lifetime in sha Allah." When he got to Ithaca, he led pro-Hamas protests, telling student activists, "We take our cue from the armed resistance in Palestine." Now he's set for deportation.
The State Department revoked Taal's visa, an official told our Alana Goodman, and the Department of Homeland Security is in the process of starting his deportation proceedings. They may drag out for a while—Taal sued the Trump administration last weekend to block its executive order on student visa revocations, arguing that the order has left him "in constant fear," prevented him from appearing in public, and thus denied his American friends "of their rights to listen" to his "ideas and suggestions."
Taal's attorneys confirmed their client is in line to leave the country should his lawsuit fail. In a Friday court filing, they revealed that the Trump administration contacted them to ask Taal to surrender to ICE at an office in Syracuse. Taal is seeking an emergency order that would temporarily block his deportation, and his attorneys say he will turn himself in if a federal judge rules against him.
World’s smallest violin plays for Schumer: The Senate minority leader is supposed to be on tour promoting his new book, Anti-Semitism in America: A Warning. Schumer postponed the tour after infuriating his fellow Democrats when he refused to shut down the government.
Schumer’s book has no constituency. On the right, we see him for the phony he is. On the left, they hate him for saying anti-Semitism is a problem. "Everyone hates it, which is typically not very helpful when it comes to selling books," our Andrew Stiles writes.
The bad reviews rolled in this week, most notably from the Washington Post's Emily Tamkin, a former Schumer intern. "In a review for the struggling paper, Tamkin argued that Schumer's book failed to 'live up to the moment' in part by failing to condemn Israel for committing 'genocide' in Gaza and by neglecting to forcefully denounce Donald Trump and the Republican Party as the real anti-Semites," writes Stiles. "Reading it made her realize she 'didn't want a warning about anti-Semitism' from Chuck Schumer." Neither did Minouche Shafik.
Reviews from other liberal journalists in the Forward, Literary Hub, and Rolling Stone similarly mocked Schumer. So did amateur reviewers on the Barnes & Noble website, including one who called Schumer's book "a limp, pandering mess that reads like a ChatGPT-generated term paper titled 'How to Avoid Taking a Stance on Anything, Ever.'" The book "currently has a rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars on Amazon, where the list price has been slashed 30 percent since the book came out on March 18."
Away from the Beacon:
- House Democrats are facing their own Tea Party, and they don't appear to be ready for it. "They hate us, they hate us," one House Democrat told a colleague, crying into her phone, after facing infuriated constituents at a town hall.
- Kamala Harris, known for her crippling inability to make clear decisions, is taking her sweet time weighing a gubernatorial bid, and her potential Democratic rivals are starting to get impatient. "The time is now," said one candidate, former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "We deserve a real conversation. We had a 100-day campaign. So no, you can't get in at the end of the rainbow. Get in now." Preach, brother.
- George Glezmann, the airline mechanic from Atlanta who spent two and a half years in Taliban captivity, said this when he returned to U.S. soil: "I feel born again. I have no words. … A free American individual, free from the hands of these people that abducted because of my U.S. passport. And I'm just thankful." Welcome home.
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