OXONIAN | Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Mayor Pete Buttigieg,
Harvard '04, Oxonian

WASHINGTON, DC, May 11, 2019–On Thursday President Donald Trump made fun of several Democratic presidential candidates, starting with Joe Biden and ending with the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana — Oxonian Pete Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-Edge-Edge).

On Friday, President Trump compared the young man, Harvard '04 and Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College (where fellow Hoosier Richard Lugar resided), to the freckled mascot of Mad Magazine.

"Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States," Trump said. 

To an interviewer from Politico, the Capitol Hill insider newspaper and podcaster, Mayor Buttigieg expressed his puzzlement over the reference to Alfred E. Neuman, and why the President would be making the comparison:

I’ll be honest. I had to Google that. I guess it’s just a generational thing. I didn’t get the reference...  I’m surprised he’s not spending more time trying to salvage this China deal.

Mad Magazine's Alfred E.
Neuman gives President 
Trump a poke in the eye.

The China deal is President Trump's long-standing, and so far unsuccessful, attempt to win significant concessions from China.

Meanwhile, his high tariffs on Chinese imports are being paid by American consumers and have met with retaliation from China that is interfering with American exports.

Harvard Raises $5 Billion in 15 Months

Harvard's Widener Library.

The Harvard Campaign received $5 billion in gifts and pledges in the 15 months ending December 31, 2014. This is:

• Nearly 77 percent of the $6.5-billion goal announced in September 2013.
• It is on top of $2.8 billion of prior commitments. 
• The $5 billion includes $2.2 billion in gifts and pledges.

The $5 billion updates the $4.3-billion total announced June 30, adding:

• A $350-million gift to the Harvard School of Public Health.
• A gift of $60-$75 million (the total was not disclosed) from Steve Ballmer ’77 for a dozen computer-science professorships in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, announced in November. 
• Gifts for the fall launches of campaigns by the Graduate School of Design, the Graduate School of Education, and the Medical School.