At George Mason University, Trump Has Found an Unbending Adversary

The New York Times ^ | Sept. 6, 2025 | Stephanie Saul

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Gregory Washington, George Mason’s first Black president, runs a university that prizes diversity. That has made him a target of the Trump administration.

Gregory N. Washington, the first Black president of George Mason University, remembers the tumult on campus as he began his new job in 2020.

It was the era of Black Lives Matter, and students were protesting over the man the school is named after, a complicated Virginia historical figure and slaveholder. Demonstrators were demanding that a statue of Mason on campus be torn down, Dr. Washington said.

Five years later, George Mason’s statue remains intact, and politics are once again convulsing college campuses. But instead of contending with student protests, today Dr. Washington — who made it his mission to reduce racial tensions at George Mason — is in the cross hairs of the Trump administration, accused of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against white academics in hiring and promotions.

President Trump’s interpretation of the Civil Rights Act, historically aimed at protecting Black people and members of other minority groups from discrimination, has infuriated his critics. And as if to twist the knife, the Trump administration has also demanded a personal public apology from Dr. Washington over his efforts to support racial diversity — which it described as unlawful and discriminatory.

Dr. Washington has refused.

“It’s to protect my reputation and the reputation of the campus,” he said in an interview last week.

The refusal has made the George Mason president one of the few university leaders who has explicitly, and publicly, challenged the Trump administration. He joins a short list of other higher education leaders, including the presidents of Harvard and Princeton.

But unlike many of his peers, Dr. Washington has been targeted as an individual, and so his choice to resist the Trump administration’s demands leaves him in an uncommonly precarious...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Walter Williams was a professor at George Mason University.

How far it has fallen.

[BenLurkin]

At George Mason University, Trump Has Found Unbending Adversary a Communist strongpoint.

[Liz]

FTA

The Trump administration demanded a personal public apology from Dr. Washington over
his efforts to support racial diversity — which it described as unlawful and discriminatory.

Black Dr. Washington refused. “It’s my job to protect my reputation
and the reputation of the campus,” he said in an interview.

[ryderann]

“It’s my job to protect my reputation and the reputation of the campus,”

And it’s a bank robber’s job to rob banks. Doesn’t make it legal.

[kiryandil]

Stephanie Saul is apparently an AWFL, who hasn't spent any time on South End light rail trains in Charlotte.

That's why the Can't Understand Normal Thinking karen has got to virtue signal to the akatas with tripe like this.

[Liz]

“It’s my job to protect my reputation and the reputation of the campus,”

And it’s a bank robber’s job to rob banks. Doesn’t make it legal.

---

Right.

[iamgalt]

Trump Has Found an Unbending Adversary“

Trump does not spend 10 seconds thinking about this fool.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Walter Williams was a professor at George Mason University.””

One man in a million....Miss him. I read his autobiography and it was swell. He told about being dressed to go to work at the university one morning and took his trashcan out to the road where a passerby stopped their car and asked him if he was available for odd jobs...There probably wasn’t anyone who got more of a kick out of something like that than he did. The book covered his time in the military also..he was drafted and served in the “south” and found himself not fighting “the enemy” but the bigots. It’s been years since I read it but think I’ll put it on my thriftbooks.com order next time. It will have to wait as I just ordered 8!!! A day without books is a sad day!!!!

[Fedora]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/19/brian-landrum-says-stephanie-saul-new-york-times-r/

Brian Landrum says Stephanie Saul, New York Times reporter, broke into his apartment

By Victor Morton - The Washington Times - Thursday, July 19, 2018
A Virginia Republican operative is accusing a New York Times reporter of breaking into his Woodbridge apartment.

Brian Landrum, who has worked for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart, said a friend of his went to his unlocked apartment around 2 p.m. Wednesday and came across an intruder, whom he identified as reporter Stephanie Saul.

“Walking out of the bathroom taking a right, hearing something, she turned around and Stephanie was standing right [there]” Mr. Landrum told *NBC-owned WRC-TV on Thursday.

He said Ms. Saul was not invited to his place.

“I had had absolutely no heads up that she even had any interest in speaking with me, until she decided to break into my apartment,” Mr. Landrum told WRC.

In an email to WRC, a Times spokesperson denied Ms. Saul had broken in.

“Ms. Saul went to an address for Landrum Associates in Woodbridge looking for Mr. Landrum. She was told by a woman who opened the door that he was not present. She left a note with the woman for Mr. Landrum asking him to call. At no time did she enter the premises,” the Times spokesperson said.

According to WRC, the Prince William County Police Department did respond to reports of a break-in at an apartment in that area.

But the police refused to confirm either party’s account or even that Mr. Landrum’s apartment was the one in question, citing victim privacy, suspect-identification rules and the fact of an ongoing investigation.

Mr. Stewart had no such inhibitions and issued a statement Thursday denouncing the Times.

“The fake news media will stop at nothing to destroy Republicans, as we’ve seen with their coverage of President Trump and others over the last few years,” he said. “Far left media from New York to Richmond have been working overtime to invent wild stories to try to give advantage to Tim Kaine, and now they’re breaking into our team’s homes in pursuit of their narrative.”