Trump threatens to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status

Donald Trump threatens to tax Harvard as a political entity as the university hardens its resistance to the administration’s demands over its government structure.

The entrance to the Harvard University campus. Picture: AP.

President Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, escalating a feud over antisemitism concerns and academic freedom at the nation’s wealthiest university.

Trump wrote on social media Tuesday (local time) that Harvard’s decision to resist his administration’s demands to change its governance structure over campus antisemitism concerns could result in a loss of tax exemptions.

“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?’ Trump wrote. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!’” The federal government Monday said it would freeze $2.26 billion of Harvard’s multiyear grants and contracts. It already had earlier threatened to withhold nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts from the school and its affiliated hospitals.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard President Alan Garber said Monday in a letter to the school’s community.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Harvard hadn’t taken Trump’s concerns seriously.

“All the President is asking, don’t break federal law, and then you can have your federal funding,” she said. “I think the President is also begging a good question … why are the American taxpayers subsidising a university that has billions of dollars in the bank already?” Harvard’s resistance to the administration’s demands is the most significant pushback against the government since it began pressuring universities earlier this year.

The Trump administration task force on antisemitism wrote to the school earlier this month asking it to take nine actions that “we regard as necessary for Harvard University’s continued financial relationship with the United States government.” Most of the demands concern how the university operates. The government is asking for a comprehensive mask ban as well as changes to governance, leadership and admissions and an end to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs.

Notably, the government also is seeking to reach into the classroom, demanding “necessary changes” be made “to address bias, improve viewpoint diversity, and end ideological capture,” which fuel antisemitic harassment, the task force’s letter said.

In a Monday letter to the task force, lawyers for the university said, “Harvard has made, and will continue to make, lasting and robust structural, policy, and programmatic changes to ensure that the university is a welcoming and supportive learning environment.” But the task force is making demands “in contravention of the First Amendment” and is ignoring due process.

Garber said the demands outlined by the task force mostly represent “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.” They include requirements to audit viewpoints of the student body, faculty and staff.

Harvard is one of several universities that have come into the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which is using the threat of withholding federal funding to try to extract changes from the elite rungs of academia.

This month Harvard issued $750 million in the bond market that it could use to free up cash flow in case it is unable to reconcile with the task force.

Columbia University ceded to administration demands last month in an attempt to restore $400 million in funding cuts, though conversations are ongoing and the return of the funds isn’t assured.

Other schools with funding frozen or under review include Brown, Princeton, Northwestern and Cornell. Some universities have learned about actions against them first through media reports.

Harvard is represented by two lawyers with ties to President Trump: William Burck at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, who has represented Trump business interests, and Robert Hur, a King & Spalding partner who was previously a U.S. attorney under Trump.

On Friday, the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors sued the Trump administration in federal court, accusing it of exploiting civil-rights laws to undermine academic freedom and free speech. AAUP filed a similar lawsuit over the Columbia funding cuts.

The lawsuits argue the Trump administration is circumventing the usual way of addressing antisemitism or other civil-rights issues on campuses, which is to launch an investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, issue findings and then seek a voluntary resolution. Historically, federal funding has rarely been cut off over civil-rights issues.

The federal government’s actions “overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavoured speech, ” Friday’s faculty lawsuit argues.

Pro-Palestinian protests disrupted campuses across the country for months last year, as students, faculty and sometimes outsiders voiced discontent with the Israel-Hamas war. Many protests descended into vandalism and violence and left some Jewish students and faculty feeling targeted or unsafe.

In their letter to the task force on Monday, lawyers for the school said Harvard has made significant strides over the past 15 months to address these issues, including imposing meaningful discipline for those who violate university policy and promoting ideological diversity.

“As a result, Harvard is in a very different place today from where it was a year ago,” the school said.

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