Trump Admin Freezes More Than $2 Billion In Grants To Harvard

The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in funding for Harvard University after the institution refused to fall in line with the administration’s demands.

The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, under the Department of Education, announced the freezing of $2.2 billion in multi-year grants as well as $60 million in “multi-year contract value” to the prestigious Ivy League just hours after the university’s president released a statement.

The university was set to receive $9 billion total, but the task force claimed that Harvard’s unwillingness to compromise on its values “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”

“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the task force said in a statement on Monday.

However, the requests from the government, as sent in a five-page letter to Harvard on Friday, did not entirely cater to the protection of Jewish students.

The letter was signed by Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration; Sean R. Keveney, acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Thomas E. Wheeler, acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. It first noted that “investment is not an entitlement.”

The letter called for the university to “make meaningful governance reform and restructuring,” end its “preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” in the hiring and admissions processes, reject international “students hostile to the American values and institutions,” commission a third party to audit the university, and ensure “viewpoint diversity” across admissions and hiring.

Additionally, it demanded that the university audit “programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture,” discontinue DEI, reform student discipline and accountability, add protections for whistleblowers hoping to report the university for not complying with anything in the letter, and send a quarterly report about the progress of demands in the letter.

The letter also demanded that all these changes be implemented by August 2025.

Attorneys for Harvard responded on Monday declining the government’s reform requests but leaving the door open for further communication that falls within the scope of the administration’s legal authority.

In response to the letter, Harvard’s president Alan Garber released a statement on Monday recognizing the importance of the grants, which he said has “led to groundbreaking innovations across a wide range of medical, engineering, and scientific fields.” However, Garber claimed that the university would not compromise its First Amendment right for them.

“For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic security and vitality of our nation,” Garber said. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber continued. “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.”

The Trump administration has sought to crack down on academic freedom at multiple universities, including Columbia, which surrendered to the demands last month. It is also going after George Washington University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; the University of Minnesota; the University of Southern California; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Department of Education and Harvard, respectively, declined HuffPost’s request for additional comment. Attorneys for Harvard also did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.