Trump Administration To Review Billions In Federal Funding To Harvard

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it is reviewing about $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard University and affiliates ― the government’s latest effort to weaponize financial support so that colleges implement policies restricting free speech, under the guise of fighting antisemitism.

The federal Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said it is examining $8.7 billion in what it calls “multiyear grant commitments,” as well as an additional $256 million in contracts to the school. The review is meant to ensure Harvard is complying with federal regulations and civil rights, the task force claimed.

“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic (sic) discrimination – all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry – has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus.”

Harvard was one of many colleges and universities whose students and faculty of all faiths peacefully protested on campus last year against Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza. The federal task force placed Harvard and nine other universities on a list in February, accusing them of allowing antisemitism on campus despite most protests focusing on the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Another school on the task force’s list is Columbia University, which received the same funding threats from the Trump administration as Harvard. The administration pulled more than $400 million in federal funding earlier this month, despite the institution having one of the most aggressive responses to student protesters.

The administration gave Columbia a similar ultimatum to Harvard: The school must overhaul its rules on protests, review its Middle Eastern studies programs and change the definition of antisemitism if it wants funding restored, a threat widely condemned as an attack on academic freedom.

Columbia caved to the White House and implemented almost all its recommended policy changes, causing an uproar among the public, and leading to nearly 1,800 academics demanding a boycott of the New York institution. On Friday, interim president Katrina Armstrong abruptly announced her exit from the position.

Harvard did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment before this story published, but university president Alan Garber released a statement Monday night signaling his intent to cave like Columbia and comply with the White House’s demands so that the school can continue receiving federal funds for research.

“We will engage with members of the federal government’s task force to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism,” he said, adding that the school has already made efforts to strengthen disciplinary measures and enhance training on antisemitism.

“We resolve to take the measures that will move Harvard and its vital mission forward while protecting our community and its academic freedom,” Garber continued. “By doing so, we combat bias and intolerance as we create the conditions that foster the excellence in teaching and research that is at the core of our mission.”

Just days before Monday’s threat, Harvard reportedly dismissed the leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which has been accused without evidence of promoting antisemitism in its curriculum on Israel and Palestine. The school also suspended its research partnership with the occupied West Bank’s Birzeit University, according to the student-run Harvard Crimson.

Harvard’s previous president stepped down from her position in January 2024 after facing attacks from the right accusing her of being antisemitic. In an opinion piece that same month with The New York Times, Claudine Gay warned that her ouster was “merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society.”

While universities like Columbia and Harvard wrestle with how much to concede for federal funding, the Trump administration has continued to target higher education by going after their students who either protested on campus or expressed pro-Palestinian views. Academics and the public have denounced the schools for being complicit in federal immigration efforts to unlawfully snatch noncitizen students who exercised their free speech rights.

“Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns don’t end there,” Gay wrote in her op-ed last year. “Trusted institutions of all types – from public health agencies to news organizations – will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility.”