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Nathan Cofnas’s reinstatement at Ghent University last month has become a rallying point for a transatlantic network of Trump-supporting campaigners and media, seeking to rehabilitate discredited theories of racial hierarchy under the banner of academic freedom.
The US Government appeared to intervene directly on Cofnas’ behalf, with the US Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, posting: “After speaking with all parties… Ghent University and Nathan Cofnas have amicably reached an agreement to lift Mr Cofnas’ suspension.”
Cofnas said he personally thanked the ambassador, who “responded with great support which helped bring about a just outcome.”
Tijl De Bie, Professor of AI at Ghent, opposed the disciplinary action taken against Cofnas but posted: “This is clearly blackmail by a foreign state and it is scandalous.”
The academic Nathan Cofnas, who made accusations of plagiarism against Jason Arday, had become the topic of a debate over free speech and the limits of academic freedom after his university, Ghent University in Belgium, suspended him while it conducted an investigation. Arday resigned from Cambridge on 5 August 2026 and was found dead nine days later; his family said he had been the target of a “campaign of harassment”.
Cofnas’ reinstatement has been met with a mixed reaction from those who supported him keeping the position at Ghent.
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A Divided Response
Those who support Cofnas’ views on race science – he believes that black people are genetically inferior to white people – have treated his reinstatement as a validation of those views. Other academics who backed him purely on academic-freedom grounds are troubled by the manner of the Trump administration’s intervention. A third group believed Cofnas should keep his position while regarding his work as pseudoscience that needs to be challenged robustly.
De Bie continued: “This ‘victory’ (if it is one – and that’s not at all clear yet) is a defeat for academic freedom as a principle, and a victory for Cofnas’ views and American imperialism.”
Sasha Gusev, an associate professor of statistical genetics at Harvard Medical School, has said they strongly believe Cofnas should keep his post-doctoral position at Ghent, despite describing Cofnas’ views as “gutter racism.” They asked on X: “Why can’t Cofnas’ defenders honestly articulate the views that actually make him controversial?” Gusev highlights two sections from Cofnas’ writing.
The first shows Cofnas effectively arguing for segregation. Cofnas wrote that “those who truly value diversity should favour the preservation of racial distinctions”, suggesting “there must be some barriers set up between races in order for each one to express its own unique genius”.
The other section highlighted by Gusev shows Cofnas rejecting academic-freedom protections for those he describes as “wokesters”. Cofnas argued: “Critics may say that removing, or taking any other action against, the pseudoscholars would violate ‘academic freedom.’ But academic freedom doesn’t mean that taxpayers have a moral obligation to (directly or indirectly) finance lifelong sinecures for political activists.”
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How the Story Spread
On 27 August 2026, the same day Cofnas thanked the US embassy, he appeared on the Triggernometry podcast hosted by Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster. When asked what motivates him to tackle controversial topics despite pushback from all sides, Cofnas answered: “Ignoring natural group differences forces society to blame ‘mystical injustice’ for inequality, meaning there will be no peace until we accept biological reality.”
Triggernometry operates free of charge out of ‘“’The Sanctuary’, a suite of rooms overlooking Westminster Abbey run by the crypto-billionaire and Reform UK donor Ben Delo. The Sanctuary supports more than 50 organisations, providing workspace and networking opportunities, including the Free Speech Union, which represented Cofnas when he unsuccessfully challenged Emmanuel College, Cambridge’s decision to dismiss him in 2024.
Cofnas’ reinstatement and the Triggernometry interview have been amplified by those supporting race science, not just as a win for academic freedom but as a vindication of his views. The interview was shared by Elon Musk with the line “The truth shall set you free.” This, in turn, triggered a multitude of posts from anonymous blue-tick accounts espousing race science as fact.
Melissa Chen, an activist who opposes critical race theory, shared the interview with a long post starting with “The Bell curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture.” She continued: “These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow.”
The Bell Curve, which argued that black people were less intelligent than white people partly for genetic reasons, was published in 1994, and co-authored by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein. It relied extensively on research financed by the Pioneer Fund. Established in New York in 1937, the Pioneer Fund harboured direct ties with Nazi eugenicists. Thirteen scholars whose work The Bell Curve relied on were Pioneer Fund grantees, while the Fund financed nearly all research cited for its central race and IQ claims.
Chen is engaged to Winston Marshall, the son of Sir Paul Marshall, owner of the Spectator and UnHerd, and co-owner of GB News. Cofnas’ comments in an interview with Winston Marshall were cited by Ghent University in its initial letter notifying Cofnas of the investigation.
What began with accusations against Jason Arday is warping into an argument that societies were once meritocracies before diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, sorted instead into a natural order dictated by genetics. The idea that injustice is an illusion is an ideal ideology for the billionaire-backed radical right. Coming in the same week that Dolly Parton died, it is an ideology under which handing out millions of books to children counts as a waste of money.
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The Terms of Return
Concerns had previously been raised regarding Cofnas’ appointment and his support for race science – the discredited belief that racial groups differ biologically in traits such as intelligence – and his recent comments in the media prompted Ghent to take action. Open letters defending Cofnas on the grounds of academic freedom circulated, alongside another calling for his dismissal.
However, Cofnas’ reinstatement carries substantial restrictions.
Under the terms of the disciplinary measure, all Cofnas’ work must be performed exclusively via telework, and his presence at Ghent University is permitted only with express permission. He remains barred from teaching, grading exams and advising students, and his research must stay strictly within the topics for which his appointment was granted – “The Future of Liberalism”.
Research on “race realism” and the “hereditarian revolution” may not be conducted within the scope of that appointment, and Cofnas is not permitted to give the impression that such research is being conducted within the scope of, on behalf of, or under the affiliation of Ghent University.
Under these measures, these restrictions are to continue for three months, but may be extended by additional three-month periods, or ended early.