Former U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status following the institution’s refusal to comply with sweeping policy changes proposed by his administration.
The warning, issued via Trump’s Truth Social platform on Tuesday, follows the administration’s decision to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding and an additional $60 million in government contracts. Trump accused the Ivy League university of acting like a political entity and said it should be taxed accordingly.
“Harvard should lose its Tax-Exempt Status and be taxed as a Political Entity if it continues to defy federal directives,” Trump posted. “Tax-exempt status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST.”
The policy clash centers around proposed changes to student admissions criteria and faculty governance—reforms the Trump administration says are necessary to ensure ideological balance and transparency on college campuses.
Harvard President Alan Garber issued a firm response in a letter to students and faculty, declaring that the university would not yield to political pressure.
“We will not negotiate over our independence or constitutional rights,” Garber wrote, reaffirming the institution’s commitment to academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
In a related move, Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the immediate freeze of multi-year federal grants, citing the university’s continued resistance to what it called “necessary reforms.”
The escalating standoff marks a sharp confrontation between one of America’s oldest academic institutions and a former president with renewed political influence, setting the stage for a broader debate over academic freedom, federal oversight, and the limits of executive power.
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