President Trump issued a new threat to Harvard University on Tuesday after the federal government froze $2.2 billion in grant funding for the institution, suggesting that the Ivy League school “should lose its tax-exempt status and be taxed as a political entity.”
The president’s latest statement came after the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution announced Monday that it will reject a list of demands from the Trump administration governing the school’s policies and leadership. Harvard is the latest university to be targeted by the Trump administration, which is using federal funding as leverage to try to change internal governance at universities and how they manage student expression on campus.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?'” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
Nearly all public and private colleges in the United States are exempt from paying taxes because they are educational organizations, according to the Association of American Universities.
Harvard rejects Trump’s demands
The conflict between some universities and the Trump administration stems from pro-Palestinian encampments that grew at Harvard Yard and on other college campuses last year. The Trump administration said at the end of March it was reviewing about $9 billion in grants with Harvard as it investigates alleged antisemitic incidents at colleges.
A letter the Trump administration sent Harvard on April 11 demanded several changes, including leadership reforms at the school and an end to diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Harvard President Alan Garber responded by saying the university “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
“I think so many of us want to work at a place and be part of a community that stands up for its principles, right?” Harvard political science professor Ryan Enos said. “If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.”
Harvard’s endowment and federal funding
Earlier this year, Harvard announced a hiring freeze in response to “rapidly shifting federal policies.” Much of the federal funding Harvard receives goes toward medical and scientific research.
Harvard Medical School, for example, says federal support has “enabled innovations in cancer immunotherapy, treatments for diabetes and obesity, therapies for autoimmune diseases, the first gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease, and more.”
“It’s not just that things have been stopped cold, which a lot of it has,” Enos said. “One day, they’re doing research and then the next day they can’t. It’s also the fact that they can’t plan.”
But Shabbos Kestenbaum, who received his master’s degree from Harvard and campaigned for Mr. Trump, says this sort of penalty on the university is long overdue.
“What the federal government is doing is saying, ‘You have a track record of discrimination, you have a track record of violating the civil rights of your own students, and we’re not going to fund this,'” he said. “Harvard is trying to, you know, have its cake and eat it too.”
With Harvard reporting an endowment of more than $53 billion last year, some critics may wonder why the school needs federal funding at all.
“There is some truth to that, of course. That’s why it’s important for Harvard to fight,” Enos said. “They’re sort of digging in for battle, and we all have to prepare to go through that now.”
