U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is being mocked after sending a threatening letter to Harvard University that was full of grammatical errors. The letter, sent Monday, warned that the university would lose federal funding if it did not comply with President Trump’s demands.
However, instead of focusing on her message, the letter swiftly became the subject of mockery due to its erroneous grammar and confusing writing.
In the letter addressed to Harvard President Alan Garber, McMahon accused the university of failing to address antisemitism on campus. She also criticised the school’s leadership and policies, claiming it had violated federal laws and misused taxpayer money. But it was the letter’s messy language that caught the most attention.
“Harvard University has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system,” McMahon wrote. She went on to claim that the university was admitting foreign students who had engaged in violent behavior and had shown contempt towards the U.S.
“Why is it that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this ‘acclaimed university’?” she asked.
However, it wasn’t the accusations or the letter itself that drew attention—it was the more than a dozen grammatical mistakes it contained. Several journalists and public figures pointed out the errors, mocking McMahon for her poor writing.
“Did you use A1 to write this?” wrote investigative reporter Roger Sollenberger, referring to McMahon’s confusion between artificial intelligence (AI) and the steak sauce A1.
Here is one part of the letter with the grammatical mistakes pointed out, shared on X:
Andrew Feinberg, a White House correspondent for The Independent, commented, “Whoever wrote this is barely literate.“
Fred Wellman, a veterans’ activist, took to social media to express his frustration, writing,
“Did a high school kid write this? You’re the Secretary of ‘Education,’ and this is a chaotic mess of bad grammar and illiterate rambling.”
Harvard public policy professor Maya Sen also weighed in, criticising McMahon for using the threat of cutting federal contracts over political disagreements with the university.
Although McMahon’s letter was intended to send a warning to Harvard, it became a national joke, eclipsed by its poor grammar and muddled arguments.
You can view the complete letter with all the errors highlighted in this X post.