WASHINGTON (AFP) – United States (US) President Donald Trump called Harvard a “joke” and said it should lose its government research contracts after the prestigious university refused demands that it accept outside political supervision.
Trump’s administration also threatened to ban the famed seat of learning from admitting foreign students unless it bows to the requirements, as US media reported that officials were considering revoking the university’s tax-exempt status.
“Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“Harvard is a joke, teaches hate and stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.”
Trump is furious at the storied institution for rejecting government supervision of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant and ordered the freezing of USD2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard this week.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also cancelled USD2.7 million worth of research grants to Harvard on Wednesday and threatened the university’s ability to enrol international students unless it turns over records on visa-holders’ “illegal and violent activities”.
“If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” a DHS statement said, with Secretary Kristi Noem accusing the university of “bending the knee to antisemitism”.
International students made up 27.2 per cent of Harvard’s enrolment this academic year, according to its website.
Other institutions, including Columbia University, have bowed to less far-ranging demands from the Trump administration, which claims that the educational elite is too left-wing.
Harvard has flatly rejected the pressure, with its president, Alan Garber, saying that the university refuses to “negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights”.
Trump also said that Harvard “should lose its Tax Exempt Status” as a non-profit educational institution if it does not back down. CNN and the Washington Post reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was now making plans to do so following a request from Trump.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told AFP by e-mail that “any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the President”.
Demonstrating the broadening resonance of the row, Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr spoke out in support of Harvard.
Kerr, sporting a Harvard T-shirt, called the demands on the university the “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” and cited his backing of “academic freedom”. The payments frozen to Harvard are for government contracts with its leading research programmes, mostly in the medical fields where the school’s laboratories are critical in the development of new medicines and treatments.
Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programmes aimed at encouraging minorities.
