BREAKING: Donald Trump gets jaw-dropping news as the entire 12-person Fulbright Scolarship board quits in protest due to the MAGA administration’s illegal political interference in their operations.
This is an academic bombshell of historic proportions…
“Effective immediately, members of the Congressionally mandated Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board voted overwhelmingly to resign from the board, rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago,” the board wrote in its official statement.
The Fulbright scholarship program is one of our nation’s most prestigious and helps fund foreign exchanges for brilliant American students while bringing distinguished foreign scholars, students, and artists to the United States.
The program is technically overseen by the State Department which is currently run by spineless MAGA hatchet man Marco Rubio. According to the board, this administration has “usurped the authority” afforded to them.
The State Department canceled roughly 200 scholarships for American researchers to work abroad, constituting a gross overreach of power in pursuit of partisan right-wing aims. An additional 1,200 scholarships to foreign nationals are currently under review.
“We believe these actions not only contradict the statute but are antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute,” the board wrote.
“It is worth noting that the awards that were overridden include studies in categories such as biology, engineering, architecture, agriculture, crop sciences, animal sciences, biochemistry, medical sciences, music, and history,” they added.
The insinuation of Trump’s ideology into the Fulbright program is part of a broader agenda to undermine academia, promote ignorance, and foment xenophobia.
The State Department’s public diplomacy office sent rejection letters to scholars based on MAGA aversion to their research topics. Not coincidentally, the diplomacy office is run by suspected white nationalist Darren Beattie, who has stated that “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”
According to The New York Times, the board was also understandably concerned about Rubio’s budget proposal which would gut funding for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from $691 million to $50 million. The Fulbright program falls under said Bureau.
“Our resignation is not a decision we take lightly. But to continue to serve after the Administration has consistently ignored the Board’s request that they follow the law would risk legitimizing actions we believe are unlawful and damage the integrity of this storied program and America’s credibility abroad,” the board wrote.
“Indeed, the erosion of the Fulbright program weakens America and our national security interests. Institutions and the rule of law matter and have distinguished our country for almost 250 years. As a Board, we are proud of our stewardship of the program, the way we’ve worked to uphold its mission, integrity, and adherence to the law,” they continued.
“It is our sincere hope that Congress, the courts, and future Fulbright Boards will prevent the administration’s efforts to degrade, dismantle, or even eliminate one of our nation’s most respected and valuable programs. Injecting politics and ideological mandates into the Fulbright program violates the letter and spirit of the law that Congress so wisely established nearly eight decades ago,” they concluded.