Trump threatens Harvard with possibility of losing tax exempt status amid row with university

Donald Trump has threatened Harvard with the possibility of it losing its tax exempt status amid a row with the university.

It comes after the US government froze more than $2.2bn (£1.67bn) in funding for the university after it defied demands made by the Trump administration to curb protests on campus.

The Ivy League university, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,has accused the federal government of trying “to control the Harvard community”, including calling on the student body, academics and staff to be “audited” on their views about diversity.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump ramped up his criticism of the university in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He wrote: “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?”

“Remember, tax exempt status is totally contingent on acting in the public interest.”

Harvard president Alan Garber has accused the administration of attempting to “reduce the power” of certain students, academics, and administrators targeted because of their ideological views.

Some $7.2bn (£5.75bn) more in government funding is at risk.

In a letter to the Harvard community on Monday, Mr Garber claimed the demands violated the university’s first amendment rights and “exceed the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI”, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their race, colour or national origin.

He was responding after a letter from the Trump administration on Friday called for reforms and warned the university to comply if it wanted to “maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government”.

It said: “By August 2025, the university shall commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse.”

The 10 demands, which the administration has said are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus, include restricting acceptance of any international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions”.

The administration also wants a third party to audit programmes offered at the university that it has said “fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture”.

Former president Barack Obama posted on X: “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect.

“Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”

Demand to scrap DEI programmes

The federal government also demanded the immediate axing of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes and initiatives.

The demands, which are an update from an earlier letter, also call for a ban on face masks – which appeared to target pro-Palestinian protesters.

The administration has argued that universities allowed what it considered to be antisemitism to go unchecked during campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza. The schools deny it.

Harvard remains defiant

Mr Garber wrote: “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 that the university had carried out extensive reforms to address antisemitism.

“These ends will not be achieved by assertions of power, unmoored from the law, to control teaching and learning at Harvard and to dictate how we operate,” he wrote.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump blames Zelenskyy for starting Ukraine war
Trump says US could deport ‘homegrown criminals’ to El Salvador jail

Get Sky News on WhatsApp

Follow our channel and never miss an update.

Tap here to follow

In a letter issued to the administration, lawyers for the university say it is “committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in its community,” but that the Trump administration’s demands “invade university freedoms long recognised by the Supreme Court”.

Harvard is one of several Ivy League schools targeted in a pressure campaign by the administration, which has also paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Princeton to force compliance with its agenda.

Harvard’s demand letter is similar to the one that led to changes at Columbia University amid the threat of billions of dollars in cuts.