Wagner College Rescinds Donald Trump’s Honorary Degree Following Riots

Donald Trump has been stripped of yet another honorary degree in the wake of the Capitol riot Wednesday. After the president’s remarks incited a mob of loyalists to storm the legislature, Wagner College has rescinded the degree they issued to him in 2004.

The college gave Trump the degree after he spoke to their graduating class and video of that speech is still available. While they didn’t offer a reason for taking the degree back, the events of the last week make their rationale fairly obvious.

The announcement from the college comes after several social media companies have banned or suspended the president. Following the riot, Twitter initially suspended the president, upping their sentence to a permanent ban after Trump began using other account credentials to access the service. The bans, and similarly motivated resignations within the Trump administration, all ring a little hollow after profiting off of Trump’s frequently dangerous rhetoric and policy for four years.

Wagner is the second higher learning institution to pull Trump’s degree this week, after Lehigh University. While the Pennsylvania school offered no explanation of their reasoning, the university’s president did release a statement condemning the riot.

“Yesterday we witnessed a violent assault on the foundations of our democracy — the abiding respect for the will of the people exercised in a free election and the peaceful transfer of power,” John D. Simon said. “I sincerely hope we can turn the sadness and anger that the lawlessness in our nation’s capital has evoked into motivation to make our nation ore just. I trust that it will inspire us to redouble our efforts to unite our country and encourage the peaceful pursuit of governance, guided by truth and reason.”