August M
Donald Trump has sharply intensified his confrontation with Harvard University, announcing plans to pursue massive financial damages. The move follows weeks of legal wrangling and failed negotiations over federal funding.
The standoff has become one of the most prominent clashes between the White House and an elite US university.
A new demand
According to the BBC, Trump said on Monday that his administration would seek $1bn (£730m) in damages from Harvard. He made the announcement on Truth Social after citing a New York Times report that said officials had dropped an earlier demand for a $200m payment during talks with the university.
Trump accused Harvard of “feeding a lot of nonsense” to the newspaper. “We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” he wrote.
Roots of the conflict
Trump administration officials have repeatedly accused Harvard of failing to adequately address antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Harvard has rejected those claims.
The BBC reports that the university has become a central focus of the administration’s broader effort to confront what it describes as “woke” and “radical left” ideologies in higher education.
Funding and lawsuits
In April last year, Trump revoked about $2bn in federal research grants to Harvard and froze additional funding. The university responded by suing the administration, arguing that no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”.
A US federal court later overturned the funding cuts, ruling that the government had violated the university’s free speech rights.
White House response
The White House criticised the ruling and said it would immediately challenge what it called an “egregious decision”. Officials also warned that Harvard remained “ineligible for grants in the future”.
Despite the ruling, talks continued between the government and the university over a possible settlement to restore funding before Trump’s latest announcement.
Wider implications
Trump has previously threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and seize control of patents linked to federally funded research. He has also pointed to alleged “serious and heinous illegalities”, without detailing specific violations.
Other Ivy League institutions, including Columbia, Penn and Brown, opted to strike deals with the administration to protect federal funding rather than pursue lengthy court battles.
Sources: BBC, New York Times
