As the dispute between the White House and Harvard over billions of dollars in research funds drags on, an influential new figure has entered the negotiations with the potential to sway both sides: Stephen A. Schwarzman, a billionaire Harvard alumnus who is close to President Trump.
The prominent Wall Street executive has taken an active role in recent days, helping to shape the final terms of a potential deal that would require Harvard to agree to a series of measures to stop the administration’s pressure campaign against the school, according to six people familiar with the discussions.
During calls with administration officials this week, Mr. Schwarzman has been the lead voice for Harvard. One conversation on Wednesday involved Linda McMahon, Mr. Trump’s secretary of education, who led the discussion for the administration, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Schwarzman’s sudden involvement, which came at the request of Harvard and was encouraged by Mr. Trump, is the latest development in the monthslong battle between the university and the Trump administration. It comes amid a growing divide inside the administration between hard-liners, who want concessions from Harvard, and Mr. Trump, who is eager to announce a deal.
The White House has used a whole-of-government approach — including investigations and funding cuts — as a cudgel to try to compel Harvard and other elite colleges to adopt more conservative values, including stricter definitions of gender, deeper government access to student admissions data and more rigorous codes for student conduct.
Mr. Schwarzman’s engagement in the fraught negotiations also puts a spotlight on Mr. Trump’s norm-breaking approach to government work.
Recent administrations that have been vexed by difficult negotiations often avoided the involvement of outsiders, in part to avoid the potential appearance of conflicts of interest.
But Mr. Schwarzman’s role highlights the significant influence held by private-sector figures within the Trump administration, where even those without formal government positions — including business magnates with their own financial interests and objectives — can play pivotal roles in shaping national and geopolitical policy.
The White House declined to comment on the details of this report. Instead, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said, “President Trump is leading the way toward improved higher education in America and ensuring universities protect their students from harassment and discrimination.” Harvard and Mr. Schwarzman also declined to comment.
Mr. Schwarzman’s participation has not resulted in a finalized agreement, but it has helped restart the negotiations. Some administration officials have privately expressed skepticism about whether his experience as chief executive of the Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest investment firms, or his longstanding relationship with Mr. Trump will be enough to lead to a détente, according to two people familiar with the matter.
He has cited growing antipathy toward Jews as a major concern. “The dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency,” Mr. Schwarzman, who is Jewish, said when endorsing Mr. Trump for president in 2024.
Harvard’s decision to use Mr. Schwarzman as an intermediary demonstrates how the school views the status of the negotiations.
In recent weeks, Harvard officials became convinced that hard-liners in the administration — including Harmeet K. Dhillon, the Justice Department’s top civil rights lawyer — were trying to upend the deal and force Harvard to accept harsher terms like having a monitor oversee the school.
Harvard concluded that only Mr. Trump could rein in officials like Ms. Dhillon, according to two people briefed on the matter, so the school needed to open a channel directly to the president through someone who he trusted and respected.
To that end, the Harvard officials signed off on Mr. Schwarzman engaging with Mr. Trump to restart the negotiations.
Mr. Schwarzman began the effort in early September. A pivotal conversation took place on Tuesday, when Mr. Schwarzman called Mr. Trump at the White House while on a trip to London, where he had traveled, in part, for a dinner with Prince William, the heir to the British throne.
While on the call, Mr. Schwarzman was placed on speakerphone in the Oval Office, and was drawn into a heated argument over the terms of the deal with Ms. Dhillon, who was in the room along with Ms. MacMahon, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, among others, according to three people briefed on the discussion.
Mr. Trump appeared delighted by the back-and-forth and laughed it off, the people said.
Despite the argument, the ploy to reach Mr. Trump worked, as almost immediately after speaking with Mr. Schwarzman, Mr. Trump announced publicly that a deal was close but said the final terms had to be ironed out.
The negotiations between Harvard and the White House have centered on the university’s willingness to adopt portions of Mr. Trump’s political agenda in return for restoring its access to billions in federal funding for health, science and other government-sponsored research projects. The administration is seeking more control over how Harvard admits students, hires employees and sets its curriculum.
Harvard has resisted those efforts, arguing that the university is in compliance with federal law and that the administration’s actions have violated its First Amendment and procedural rights. A federal judge in Massachusetts agreed with the university last month, ruling that the Trump administration broke the law with its tactics to impose the president’s political agenda on Harvard.
The government restored some of Harvard’s research funding to comply with the ruling, which the White House has pledged to appeal. But the university’s crisis extends far beyond existing grants. If Harvard is blocked from future government research projects — as the government has taken the initial steps toward ensuring — the consequences could disrupt the university’s financial stability.
Mr. Schwarzman has been a longtime confidante of Mr. Trump’s. Born within eight months of each other during the Truman administration, the two men are generational peers who traveled in similar social circles as adults but have grown closer in recent years over their shared interest in Washington. In 2007, Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, attended Mr. Schwarzman’s 60th birthday, where paparazzi lined up to snap photos of the rich and famous invitees.
A Harvard Business School alumnus, Mr. Schwarzman mythologized the university even as a high school student outside Philadelphia. At the time, he was so eager to be admitted that he called the university’s admissions dean to try to get moved off the wait list — a gambit he has publicly likened to “dialing God.”
“I think it’s really going to be in your interest to take me,” Mr. Schwarzman recalled telling the dean when, firmly ensconced as a billionaire, he recounted the episode during an appearance at Goldman Sachs decades later.
When the dean asked why, Mr. Schwarzman, who said he had made the call from a pay phone in his school gymnasium, responded, “I’m going to be very successful, and that would be good for Harvard.”
The effort failed, and Mr. Schwarzman instead enrolled at Yale. The university’s campus in New Haven, Conn., now features the Schwarzman Center, a state-of-the-art performing arts center after Mr. Schwarzman donated $150 million, one of the single largest donations in the school’s history.
Mr. Schwarzman would go on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard in 1972.
Mr. Schwarzman, 78, is worth more than $50 billion, ranking No. 32 on the Forbes list of world’s richest people.
Mr. Schwarzman has played a part in some key policy debates as an unofficial adviser during Mr. Trump’s presidencies, including the Republican tax cuts in 2017 and a trade agreement with China in 2020.
But the relationship has suffered ruptures, too. After Mr. Trump struggled to directly condemn white supremacists following racial violence in 2017 in Charlottesville, Va., Mr. Schwarzman and others distanced themselves from Mr. Trump and the advisory group fell apart.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Schwarzman eventually mended their ties. Mr. Schwarzman poured millions of dollars into a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election effort.
After the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Schwarzman privately said Mr. Trump should be removed from office, and he later signaled that he would back a “new generation of leaders,” The New York Times has reported.
However, in May 2024, after Mr. Trump’s third presidential nomination was well in hand, Mr. Schwarzman endorsed Mr. Trump.
Michael C. Bender is a Times correspondent in Washington.
Michael S. Schmidt is an investigative reporter for The Times covering Washington. His work focuses on tracking and explaining high-profile federal investigations.
Alan Blinder is a national correspondent for The Times, covering education.
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