IVY SQUEEZE

Trump Administration Threatens to Yank $9B From Harvard Over Antisemitism Claims

The new threat comes just one week after Columbia surrendered to the administration’s terms.

The Trump administration announced in a statement Monday that it would be reviewing around $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard University as part of an ongoing investigation by the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The statement, made by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and the U.S. General Services Administration, said that the departments would be reviewing $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard, its affiliates, and the federal government, as well as $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments to the university. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination—all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry—has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. This comes after the Task Force announced on March 7 that it would be withdrawing $400 million dollars in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University. This spurred Columbia to concede to the administration’s demands, including prohibiting masks on campus and granting dozens of campus security personnel the ability to make arrests, last week, resulting in global backlash and the resignation of its interim president, Katrina Armstrong, Friday. The Task Force was created in February with the stated mission of rooting out “anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.” Both Columbia and Harvard were placed on a list of 10 universities that the Task Force was set to visit and investigate in regards to alleged antisemitic incidents since October 2023.