The Trump admin’s dispute with Harvard is escalating

On Monday, the Trump administration froze ~$2.3 billion worth of federal grants and contracts to Harvard after the school rejected a list of government demands related to claims of antisemitism and ideological capture.

President Trump also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status if the school continues to resist his administration’s demands to change its governance structure.

A breakdown

Last Friday, the Trump admin sent a letter to Harvard calling for broad reforms at the university, with ~$9 billion in federal grants and contracts at risk if Harvard doesn’t comply. They include:

• Adopting new “merit-based” hiring and admissions policies that eliminate preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• Shuttering all DEI programs, positions, initiatives, etc.
• Having each department submit to an external audit for “viewpoint diversity.” If a unit is found lacking, it must hire or admit a “critical mass” of new faculty/students “who will provide viewpoint diversity.”
• Adopting a new policy prohibiting student groups that promote criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment—with an explicit focus on those that have engaged in “anti-Semitic activity” in the past year-and-a-half.

The arguments: President Trump and his top officials say major reforms are necessary after several universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza. They also argue that granting federal funding to Harvard “only makes sense if Harvard fosters the kind of environment that produces intellectual creativity and scholarly rigor, both of which are antithetical to ideological capture.”

• But Harvard president Alan Garber says the Trump admin’s demands are really about imposing "direct governmental regulation" of higher education, rather than official claims of fighting antisemitism.
• “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,” Garber said.

Looking ahead…Garber has signaled that Harvard is open to negotiation with the Trump admin over its funding demands. Other schools could soon join Harvard at the negotiating table, with the Trump admin recently freezing funding for five other Ivy League schools and Northwestern over various allegations.

📊 Flash poll: Which of the following parties do you more strongly support in this situation?

• The Trump administration
• Harvard University
• Unsure/other