President Trump called Harvard University a “joke”, dialing up his criticisms of the institution.
Earlier in his administration, the President called for Harvard not to receive certain federal funds and grants after it defied Trump’s orders, leading to a feud that has shaped federal policies on higher education. Trump, a graduate of fellow Ivy league school University of Pennsylvania, sparred with Harvard after it refused to comply with new Department of Education orders to cut DEI programs across the nation. Trump accused Harvard of teaching “hate and stupidity” and criticized its leadership for failing to address issues of antisemitism that arose during last summer’s anti-Israel riots.
On Monday, Harvard officially became the first school impacted by the recent executive orders to openly defy the administration, setting up an unprecedented clash between higher education and the federal government. President Trump previously announced his plan to freeze $2.2 billion of federal funding to Harvard, making it the seventh institution that the administration has targeted. Six of the seven schools affected are Ivy league institutions. Harvard has implied it is prepared to use its $53 billion endowment – the largest in the history of American colleges – to fight Trump in court.
Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman threw her support behind Harvard’s stance and took a more combative tone with President Trump this week after previously agreeing to some of the President’s demands. Columbia’s interim leader resigned in March, becoming the second such person to vacate the office after embattled former President Minouche Shafik stepped down in the aftermath of a disastrous congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
In the latest escalation of the feud with Harvard, Trump floated removing the institution’s tax-exempt status in a post on Truth Social. Trump, and other Republicans, have pointed out that his administration is not the first to openly criticize a powerful university, with President Obama having made several demands to elite schools following a battle over then-new Title IX policies. The Biden administration went further than Obama however, and in 2021 demanded some State schools fight “hostile environment” speech and considered preventing those schools from complying with state laws regarding transgender men competing in women’s sports. The debate over women’s sports at colleges and universities was among the first executive actions taken by Trump aimed at reforming higher education.
In its letter refusing to comply with Trump’s orders on campus activism and antisemitism, Harvard accused the President of violating the first amendment as well as other unnamed civil rights laws. In response to Harvard’s refusal, the federal government wrote that “federal investment is an investment, not an entitlement.” It further accused Harvard of failing to uphold the civil rights laws that are a requirement for receiving federal funding and grants.
President Trump previously criticized higher education for certain curriculum decisions and prior issues regarding free speech among conservative students and faculty and threatened cuts to some public schools as well. He vowed to target schools that taught “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual and political content.”
