Trump increases pressure on Harvard by canceling all federal contracts with the university

The Donald Trump administration ramped up its pressure on Harvard on Tuesday, escalating a conflict that has been steadily intensifying since March, by ordering all federal agencies to cancel their contracts with the university. The blow amounts to around $100 million — a figure that Harvard, the richest university in the world, can absorb, given its $53 billion endowment fund. But that is not the only budget cut Harvard faces. Trump is also threatening to cut an additional $3 billion in funding, on top of the roughly $3.2 billion already frozen, and is threatening to revoke its tax-exempt status.

The latest battle in the war between the government and the oldest and one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the United States comes on the day lawyers from both sides are expected to appear before Judge Allison D. Burroughs. Last Friday, she temporarily suspended a White House order that banned the university from enrolling more international students and left those already enrolled or conducting research at Harvard in legal limbo. With their F-1 or J-1 visas revoked. they now face two options: find another place to continue their education or risk being deported.

In a letter sent Thursday, Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced that she was revoking the university’s authority to enroll international students. Harvard responded to this unprecedented move by suing the government. Tuesday’s hearing is taking place in a Boston court. Caught in the middle of this dispute are about 6,800 international students, which make up 27% of the total student body.

The order to end federal contracts with Harvard also came in a letter. Dated Tuesday, the letter argues that the university “continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life.” According to the Trump administration, the university maintains policies that favor groups such as African Americans and Hispanics over white and Asian applicants, both in student and faculty selection.

The letter — sent by the General Services Administration — made no reference to the conflict over international student, but repeated the accusation that antisemitism has taken hold on campus: “Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of its students has at times grounded day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and profoundly alarmed the general public.” These accusations stem from pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which spread across campuses nationwide last year — including at Harvard.

‘Woke’ criteria

Harvard has acknowledged that antisemitism is a problem, as is anti-Muslim sentiment, and its president, Alan Garber, pledged last month to do more to combat it. However, the idea of a “profoundly alarmed general public” is arguably an exaggeration.

The Trump administration’s order also mentions the Harvard Law Review, another battleground in the ongoing conflict. According to the government, the student-run journal selects topics and authors based on so-called woke motivations — a core obsession of U.S. conservatives.

On Monday, Trump posted a message on his social network that repeated a new attack line regarding international students at Harvard. He argued that since Harvard has “31%” international students (an incorrect figure), he doesn’t understand why only the U.S. funds the university and not other countries.

“I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” Trump wrote in a separate post, without specifying how he plans to reallocate the money — a move that is highly likely to be blocked by the courts.

The five countries that contribute the most students to Harvard are, in order, China, Canada, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, according to university data. Chinese students are at the heart of another justification used by the Trump administration to explain its crackdown on Harvard. In a statement, the DHS went so far on Thursday as to argue that the university “facilitated, and engaged in coordinated activity with the Chinese Communist Party, including hosting and training members of a Chinese Communist Party paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide.”

In a statement last Thursday, DHS went so far as to accuse the university of “facilitating and participating in coordinated activities with the Chinese Communist Party, including training members of a paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide.”

In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Steven Levitsky, one of Harvard’s most renowned professors and co-author of the influential essay on the rise of authoritarianism, How Democracies Die, described these allegations as “a joke, pure pretexts.”

At the heart of the latest dispute over foreign students is a request made in April for Harvard to share data on its visa-holding students, especially those who have participated in “dangerous” or “illegal” activities. In her letter Thursday, Noem demanded that Harvard provide DHS with video and audio recordings of those suspected students, gathered both on and off campus. The suspension of the entire international student body’s status would also affect around a hundred Israeli students, as well as those who opposed last year’s protests against Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza.

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