Trump threatens to pull billions in funding if Harvard doesn’t bend the knee
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it will be reviewing nearly $9 billion in “multiyear grant commitments” to Harvard University and its affiliates.
“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in the statement.
The Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration made the joint announcement in service of President Donald Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
Under the guise of ending antisemitism, the Trump administration has targeted 10 universities for similar federal investigations, including Columbia University. The attacks have led higher education institutions to pledge to remove protections for marginalized groups while cracking down on speech and activism on campus.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been disappearing students and former students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, which are protected by the First Amendment—making even some right-wing bigots squirm.
The legality of Trump and co-President Elon Musk using the federal purse to get what they want is concerning at best. Trump has leveraged the complicity of a GOP-controlled Congress to extort U.S. allies and punish his political opponents—higher education institutions are only his latest victim.