The White House is leaning into its fight with elite colleges and universities, openly questioning on Tuesday why any federal money goes to the schools.
“I think a lot of Americans are wondering why their tax dollars are going to these universities when they are not only indoctrinating our nation’s students but also allowing such egregious, illegal behavior to occur,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a press briefing.
The conflict began to escalate on Friday, when the Trump administration sent Harvard University demands it would need to meet to maintain its federal funding. The demands included “audits” of academic programs and departments, broad changes to university government and leadership, changes to admissions policies and ending recognition of some student clubs. According to the federal government, nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts were at risk if Harvard did not comply.
The university rejected the demands on Monday in a letter from school president Alan Garber titled, “The Promise of American Higher Education.” He wrote that most of the administration’s requests “represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”
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“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 wrote.
Later that day, the administration froze more than $2 billion in grants to the school, announcing the cuts in a letter from the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
The demands from the administration came after widespread protests over the war in Gaza took place across university campuses last year, including at Harvard. The administration contends that aspects of the protests and surrounding activity engaged in harassment of Jewish students. In January, as part of a lawsuit settlement, Harvard adopted a definition of antisemitism to be used when investigating disciplinary cases; that proved divisive among students.
“Illegal discrimination [took] place on the campus of Harvard,” Leavitt said Tuesday. “There are countless examples to prove it, particularly with the stunning confession by then Harvard President Claudine Gay, who said that bullying and harassment depended on the context. The president at that time made it clear to the American public he was not going to tolerate illegal harassment and antisemitism taking place in violations of federal law.”
Leavitt contended it was Harvard, not the administration, violating Title VI’s protections against discrimination.
“The president made it clear to Harvard: Follow federal law, no longer break Title VI, which was passed by Congress to ensure no student can be discriminated against on the basis of race, and you will receive federal funding,” Leavitt said. “Unfortunately Harvard has not taken the president or the administration’s demands seriously. All the president is asking, ‘Don’t break federal law,’ and then you can have your federal funding.”
To reinstitute the funding, Leavitt said Trump “wants to see Harvard apologize, and Harvard should apologize for the egregious antisemitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students.”
Trump also posted on Truth Social suggesting the university lose tax-exempt status: “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!”
Leavitt deferred questions on tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service.
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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