President Donald Trump’s administration has announced a further $450 million reduction in federal grants to Harvard University, following the Ivy League school’s resistance to government allegations that it is fostering liberalism and antisemitism.
On Tuesday, a letter from a federal antisemitism task force informed Harvard that it would lose grants from eight federal agencies, in addition to the $2.2 billion in funding previously frozen by the Trump administration. The letter criticized the university, stating that it had become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and now faces a “steep, uphill battle” to regain its reputation as a center 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 read. It was signed by officials from the Education Department, Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration.
In response to the latest round of funding cuts, Harvard filed a legal challenge, updating its previous lawsuit from April, which sought to block the original $2.2 billion freeze. The university has been facing increasing sanctions from the Trump administration after it became the first U.S. institution to openly defy the government’s requests to restrict pro-Palestinian activism and stop certain diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
President Trump has publicly called for 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. In addition, the Education Department stated last week that Harvard would receive no new federal grants unless it complies with government demands.
The Trump administration’s list of demands includes leadership changes at Harvard, revisions to its admissions policies, and an audit of its faculty and student body to ensure a broader range of viewpoints. This pressure campaign is also targeting other major universities, such as Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University, in a bid to enforce Trump’s agenda.
Harvard’s amended lawsuit claims that much of the funding that was initially frozen has now been permanently cut, with no possibility of restoration. A May 6 letter from the National Institutes of Health informed Harvard that its grants would be canceled due to allegations of antisemitism on campus. The letter stated that, while grants are typically suspended pending corrective action, no corrective action is possible in this case.
Harvard also received similar notifications from the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, and other agencies, according to the lawsuit, and the university is seeking to reverse those cuts.
In a letter on Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber rejected the government’s accusations, asserting that the university is nonpartisan and has taken steps to combat antisemitism on its campus. He argued that Harvard is in full compliance with the law and called the federal sanctions an “unlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university’s operations.”
The government’s letter on Tuesday emphasized Harvard’s repeated failure to address racial discrimination and antisemitism on campus. It referenced the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down the university’s use of race in its admissions process, as well as a recent internal report documenting incidents of antisemitic harassment.
