Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration “wants nothing less than $500m from Harvard” as a condition for restoring billions of dollars in federal funding to the Ivy League university.
“Don’t negotiate with them, they’ve been very bad,” Trump told his education secretary, Linda McMahon, in a cabinet meeting.
Trump’s comments came amid reports that his administration and Harvard are moving toward a potential settlement that could bring an end to their months-long battle over the government’s allegations that Harvard has not done enough to crack down on antisemitism tied to pro-Palestinian protests.
In April, Harvard became the first – and so far only – university to sue the Trump administration over the funding cuts. It sued again the following month over the government’s efforts to block the school from enrolling international students.
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The university has argued that the administration unlawfully slashed $2.6bn in research funding from the university in retaliation for the school’s refusal to comply with a series of demands laid out in an 11 April letter from a federal antisemitism task force. Those demands related to campus protests, academic policies and admissions practices.
A US district judge heard arguments from both Harvard and the Department of Justice last month.
The Department of Justice has argued that the federal government has the authority to cancel grants when institutions violate presidential directives, and have cited Trump’s executive order purporting to combat antisemitism.
The New York Times and the Associated Press have both reported that Harvard and the White House had made substantial progress toward a deal. Under the proposed agreement, according to the Times, Harvard would pay $500m in exchange for the restoration of billions in frozen federal research funds. However, key terms reportedly remain unresolved, with negotiations still continuing.
The Harvard president, Alan Garber, has disputed the Times report, reportedly telling faculty that the article was inaccurate and alleged that the information had been leaked to the press by White House officials.
According to Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, Garber said the university remains committed to resolving the matter through the courts and that academic freedom was nonnegotiable in any deal.
In July, it was also reported that Harvard agreed to comply with federal demands to turn over employment records for thousands of staff members.
Since taking office in January, Trump and his administration have made unprecedented efforts to reshape higher education, targeting elite universities over their handling of the pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, DEI programs and more.
Several other universities that have faced federal funding cuts – including Columbia, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania – have reached settlement agreements with the administration to restore research funding.
Columbia University agreed to pay more than $220m and implement a series of reforms to settle allegations that it was not doing enough to combat antisemitism. However, some education advocates decried that deal as a blow to academic freedom.
