President Donald Trump on Friday said he would end Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, repeating a familiar threat to upend the Ivy League institution’s finances.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The declaration marks the latest escalation in Trump’s war on Harvard and other elite universities, which he claims are rife with antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. In reality, the president is retaliating after Harvard rejected his administration’s sweeping set of demands, including that it ban masks, eliminate diversity programs in admissions and hiring, and impose ideological screenings for international students.
President Donald Trump
The administration has also frozen $2.2 billion in grants and a $60 million contract to the university. And Friday’s post signals Trump is ready to push even further until Harvard capitulates.
Trump hasn’t publicly detailed how he’ll revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, but he floated the idea last month, and the IRS is reportedly preparing to act. The status exempts Harvard from paying most taxes and allows donations to the institution to be tax-deductible. Losing the status would not only force Harvard to pay much more in taxes—it could also chill donor contributions.
“There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status,” a university spokesperson told CNN. “Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission.”
“The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America,” the university added.
There’s growing pressure on Harvard to lead a larger resistance to Trump’s overreach. Experts have urged universities to band together in defending themselves against political interference from the Trump administration.
Harvard has already sued, filing a legal challenge in April that calls the freeze on its funding unconstitutional and urges the courts to restore the frozen $2.2 billion. If the administration follows through on revoking the university’s tax-exempt status, more legal battles are all but certain.
The university’s president has also signaled that Harvard won’t comply with the White House’s obscene demands. Still, the university appears to be the administration’s top target. In addition to the tax threat, Trump has said Harvard could lose its ability to host international students if it doesn’t cave to him.
In recent days, Harvard has seemed to move toward defusing tensions. It will rename its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging to “Community and Campus Life,” and it will reportedly cut support for affinity group celebrations during commencement.
On Tuesday, the university also released two internal reports: one on antisemitism and another on anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian bias. The former detailed instances of Jewish students hiding their identities or taking leave due to harassment. The latter reported that Muslim students and staff felt unsafe on campus following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
And on Wednesday, Harvard disclosed that it had shared legally required information about its international students with the Department of Homeland Security, though it did not specify what data was included.
A White House official told CNN these moves were a step in a “positive” direction but ultimately insufficient.
“[T]here’s actually probably going to be additional funding being cut,” the official told CNN.
In other words, there’s no appeasing Trump. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t—and Harvard is just the latest university caught in the crosshairs of his culture war.
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