Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with
Trump administration
[May 14, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is cutting
another $450 million in grants to Harvard University a day after the Ivy
League school pushed back against government allegations that it’s a
hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.
In a letter to Harvard on Tuesday, a federal antisemitism task force
said Harvard will lose grants from eight federal agencies in addition to
$2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump administration.
The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue
signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, uphill battle” to
reclaim its legacy as a place of academic excellence.
“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing
appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited
the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” the letter said.
It was signed by officials at the Education Department, Health and Human
Services and the General Services Administration.
Hours after the latest cuts Tuesday, Harvard filed a legal challenge to
several sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in recent weeks.
It was filed as an update to the university's April lawsuit seeking to
block the initial $2.2 billion freeze.
Harvard has faced escalating sanctions from the White House after
becoming the first U.S. university to openly defy the government’s
demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism and end diversity, equity and
inclusion practices.
Trump, a Republican, has said he wants Harvard to lose its tax-exempt
status, and the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke
the school's eligibility to host foreign students.
Last week, the Education Department said Harvard will receive no new
federal grants until it meets the government's demands.
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The Trump administration has demanded Harvard make broad leadership
changes, revise its admissions policies and audit its faculty and
student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints.
The demands are part of a pressure campaign targeting several other
high-profile universities. The administration has cut off money to
colleges including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania
and Cornell University, seeking compliance with Trump’s agenda.
In its amended lawsuit, Harvard said much of the funding that was
initially frozen has now been terminated, apparently with no hope to
restore it.
A May 6 letter from the National Institute of Health notified Harvard
that grants were being cut over allegations of campus antisemitism. It
said grants are typically suspended pending an opportunity to take
corrective action, but “no corrective action is possible here,”
according to the lawsuit.
Harvard later received similar letters from the Defense Department,
Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture and other agencies,
according to the suit. It's seeking to have those cuts overturned.
Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government’s allegations in a
Monday letter, saying Harvard is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root
out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance
with the law, calling the federal sanctions an “unlawful attempt to
control fundamental aspects of our university's operations.”
The government's letter on Tuesday said Harvard has repeatedly failed to
address racial discrimination and antisemitism on campus. It cited the
Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down Harvard's use of race in the
admissions process, along with a recent internal report at Harvard
detailing cases of antisemitic harassment.
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Collin Binkley has covered Harvard for nearly a decade — most of the
time living half a mile from its campus.
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