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Former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on Harvard University this week, calling the world-renowned institution a "JOKE" and demanding it lose its federal research funding and tax-exempt status after the school refused government oversight of its admissions, hiring, and campus politics.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump wrote:
"Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning... it teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds."
His administration has already frozen $2.2 billion in federal contracts linked to Harvard’s cutting-edge research programs, mostly in medicine. Trump also ordered the IRS to prepare to revoke Harvard’s nonprofit tax-exempt status, CNN and the Washington Post reported.
At the center of the conflict: Harvard’s flat-out refusal to comply with Trump’s demands for sweeping government control, which included banning race-conscious admissions, restricting foreign student admissions, auditing for "viewpoint diversity," and cracking down on campus protests, especially over U.S. policy on Israel and Gaza.
Harvard President Alan Garber stood firm, declaring the university would not negotiate over its "independence or its constitutional rights."
Even outside politics, the clash sparked reactions:
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr wore a Harvard T-shirt to a press conference, calling the administration’s demands “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” and defending academic freedom.
The standoff reflects Trump’s broader campaign against what he calls left-leaning "intellectual elites" — also targeting other universities, law firms, and media outlets, including Columbia University, which last month agreed to federal oversight to avoid losing $400 million in funding.
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