Trump administration freezes over $2 billion in funding to Harvard over campus antisemitism concerns

After Harvard University said it would resist the Trump administration’s demands to change its governance structure over campus antisemitism concerns, President Donald Trump froze $2.26 billion in grants to the university.

The administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the cuts in a statement that called out “the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges.”

It said that $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million “in multi-year contract value” would be frozen to the Ivy League university. Earlier Monday Harvard rejected the administration’s demands.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the university’s X account said in a statement posted Monday. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

The 10 demands from the administration, which the administration says are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus, include restricting the acceptance of international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions.” The administration also wants a third party to audit programs that it says “fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”

The administration also demanded the immediate shuttering of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives, including in hiring and admissions. It asked Harvard to exchange them for “merit-based” policies.

“President Trump is working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said.

Last month, Columbia University agreed to a list of nine demands from the administration, including banning students from wearing masks at protests, hiring 36 new campus security officers who can arrest students and appointing a senior vice provost to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies. 

The administration had canceled $400 million in federal funding to the school, accusing it of “inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” It seems that Harvard is more beholden to the radical anti-Israel, DEI section of the left in America, and is standing against the administration to appease them.

This could be the start of a negotiation between Harvard and the Trump administration, or it could be the beginning of a freeze in funds to universities that tolerate left wing priorities.