Donald Trump doubled down on his conflict with Harvard University on Tuesday by threatening to take away the college’s tax-exempt status.
The threat came hours after the elite university rejected demands to make broad changes the administration claims would help fight antisemitism on campus.
First, the White House said it was freezing $2.2 billion in federal funds and more than $60 million in contracts.
And then Trump raised the stakes in a Truth Social post by saying he was considering withdrawing an exemption that allows universities, non-profits, and some religious groups from paying federal income taxes.
“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?’” wrote Trump. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
Harvard is the first major college to stand up to Trump’s demands, triggering a war between two traditional pillars of society, the White House and America’s oldest university.
The Ivy League college has accused the executive branch of seeking to “control” its community by demanding that Harvard report students “hostile” to American values, cancel all DEI programs, and hire a government-approved overseer to check programs are free of antisemitism.
“Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard,” said Harvard President Alan Garber.
“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he added in a statement.
Harvard’s punch back to Trump was co-written by conservative legal stalwarts William Burck, a one-time Bush White House counsel and the Trump Organization’s “outside ethics advisor” who has previously represented MAGA rabble-rouser Steve Bannon, and Robert Hur, the special counsel who controversially called former President Joe Biden a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In the White House press briefing on Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt questioned why Harvard would need over $2 billion in federal funding when it has more than $50 billion in endowments.
“A lot of Americans are wondering why their tax money is going to these universities,” she added.
Columbia University crumbled last month after being hit by a funding threat that was six times smaller than the hit Harvard is about to take, according to reports.
A New York Times report suggested that a group of White House officials, which included deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, spoke “privately of toppling a high-profile university to signal their seriousness.”
Barack Obama, a Harvard grad, said his old college was setting an example to other universities to stand up against the administration.
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