Trump Administration Cuts Federal Funding to Harvard in Escalating Clash Over Campus Politics

The Trump administration has announced that Harvard University will no longer receive federal research funding, intensifying its ongoing feud with the prestigious Ivy League institution over issues including campus free speech and alleged anti-Semitism, as per Al Jazeera.

In a letter sent to Harvard on Monday, US Education Secretary Linda McMahon accused the university of undermining the principles of higher education and declared that it would be cut off from future federal grants.

“Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution,” McMahon wrote, citing the university’s vast endowment and wealthy donor network as sufficient sources of private support.

The decision follows last month’s freezing of nearly $2.3 billion in federal funding to Harvard after the university rejected a series of controversial demands from the Trump administration. These included allowing external audits of faculty and students to ensure “viewpoint diversity” — a move critics said would have amounted to political surveillance and censorship.

In her letter, McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, echoed long-standing conservative critiques of elite academia, alleging that Harvard had allowed deteriorating academic standards and admitted foreign students who, in her words, “engage in violent behaviour and show contempt toward the United States of America.”

“Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, and how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE?” McMahon wrote, using capital letters in a rhetorical style often associated with President Donald Trump.

Harvard swiftly responded to the announcement, accusing the administration of political overreach and warning of the implications for academic freedom and research innovation.

“Today’s letter makes new threats to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing its lawsuit on April 21,” a university spokesperson said.

The university is currently fighting the original funding freeze in federal court, arguing that the administration’s actions constitute unconstitutional retaliation for its refusal to comply with politically motivated mandates.

“Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community,” the university added in its statement. “We will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure.”

The dispute comes amid a broader political storm over the role of US universities in the Israel-Palestine debate. Nationwide pro-Palestinian student protests erupted last year in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, prompting heightened scrutiny of campus environments. Harvard itself has been the subject of bipartisan criticism over how it has handled allegations of both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents.

In April, two separate Harvard task forces reported that students and staff had faced anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias on campus. In response, Harvard President Alan Garber acknowledged the reports and pledged to make the university more inclusive.

“Some members of our community have been pushed to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe,” he said, promising to ensure that “mutual respect is the norm.”

Trump and many conservative figures have long accused Harvard and other elite institutions of marginalizing right-wing views and pushing progressive ideologies.