The Trump administration is looking to pull another $1 billion from Harvard amid an escalating fight with the university as it stands in open defiance of the president’s demands to change many of its policies.
The additional $1 billion would target health research, people familiar with the issue told The Wall Street Journal.
The cut would follow some $2.2 billion in federal funding already frozen after the Ivy League school rejected the administration’s demands, which including changes to hiring and admissions policies, as well as eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
President Trump is also threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security is looking into cutting off its ability to enroll foreign students.
The Hill has reached out to the White House and Harvard for comment.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” President Alan Garber said in his message rejecting the administration’s demands last week.
The Journal reports that the White House saw that list as the starting point of negotiations and is furious that the school shared it with the public.
Harvard is all but certain to file legal challenges to the administration’s funding cuts, but it has yet to announce doing so.
