Elise Stefanik, the Trumpist at the origin of the controversy – L’Express

The celebration did not drag on. As soon as the resignation of the president of Harvard was announced, Elise Stefanik congratulated herself on X: “Two down!”, she proclaimed with three red flashing light emojis in reference to the departure of two university presidents , for which she takes credit. The conservative New York state representative aggressively questioned officials from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at a congressional hearing last month about the rise in anti-Semitism. on campuses, following the war in Gaza. Would “calling for the genocide of the Jews” violate Harvard’s code of conduct on harassment, she asked the boss of the prestigious university Claudine Gay in particular.

“It depends on the context,” replied the latter. A dilatory and astonishing response, also put forward by his two colleagues from MIT and “Penn”, which caused an immense outcry. Elise Stefanik, with more than 70 elected officials, demanded their dismissal. Elizabeth Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned immediately. Claudine Gay apologized but at the same time had to face accusations of plagiarism in her research work and finally announced her departure on Tuesday January 2.

For Elise Stefanik, herself a Harvard graduate, this is a big victory. It wouldn’t have happened “if there hadn’t been very clear moral questions during the hearing”, she congratulates herself. In an interview on Fox News, she added that a congressional investigation would continue to expose “the rot in these institutions.” It’s a victory all the sweeter as the 39-year-old has a dispute with the university. After the 2020 election, she was kicked off the Institute of Politics Advisory Committee due to her “public statements about voter fraud in presidential elections that are not based on any evidence.”

Elise Stefanik, the “future of American politics”

The fact of having helped bring down two university presidents, institutions considered by conservatives as bastions of leftism and elitism, will undoubtedly strengthen his position as a rising star among the Republicans. Elise Stefanik is the perfect incarnation of the evolution of the Party under the control of Donald Trump. This daughter of a plywood distributor worked after graduating from Harvard in various positions in the administration of George W. Bush, then became an advisor to Paul Ryan, vice-presidential candidate on the presidential “ticket” with Mitt Romney in 2012. Ryan describes his protégé in 2019 in the magazine Time as “the future of optimistic and ambitious politics in America.”

In 2014, Elise Stefanik won a representative seat in New York State, and at age 30 became the youngest elected representative to Congress. She is presented as the next generation of the Party, a new face with moderate and pragmatic positions on the climate and immigration in particular. But the arrival of Donald Trump in power in 2016 put a damper on his ambitions. The Party has changed and moderates like her no longer have a future. Many lost their seats in the midterm elections in 2018. And his constituency is also moving to the right.

Elise Stefanik then makes a 180 degree turn which astonishes her friends. She reinvents herself as a MAGA (Make America Great Again) crusader, adopting the same conspiracy theories, the same incendiary rhetoric, the same attacks on wokism as her new idol. And yet, for years, she did not hold back from criticizing the character. In August 2015, she accused him of “insulting” women, which did him a disservice to voters. She criticizes him for his decree which prohibits access to the territory to nationals of several Muslim countries, his positions on NATO… and does not think that his wall project on the Mexican border is “realistic”.

Elevator return

From 2019, Elise Stefanik began to defend the president during the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential campaign, saying that he was being persecuted by Democrats. She also fiercely supported him during the impeachment proceedings. This metamorphosis attracted the cameras of Fox News and a windfall of donations, not to mention the approval of the president. From now on, she campaigns for all her reforms and seems ready to make any compromises. In 2020, she refused to certify the election results, claiming there were “irregularities”.

The calculation pays off. When in May 2021, the Republican Party’s number 3 place in the House of Representatives became available, Donald Trump issued a press release: “Elise Stefanik is a much superior choice and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL support”, affirms he. The New York State representative is elected. The return of the elevator is not long in coming. In 2022, even before the former president officially announces his candidacy, the young mother declares her support for him. “Republican voters determine the leader of the Party and it is very clear that it is President Trump,” she said. She hopes, it is said, that his loyalty will be rewarded, if he is elected in 2024, by a position in the administration or better yet by the post of vice-president.