Here are the actions the Trump administration has taken against Harvard so far

The Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to try to get Harvard University to cave to its demands.

After the Ivy League university said it would not change its hiring and admissions policies or eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion, President Trump, who accused the school of failing to act against antisemitism, declared war by hitting multiple avenues of funding and launching investigations seeking to further weaken the institution.

Harvard has shown it is ready to fight, already filing at least one lawsuit against the Trump administration’s actions, but has warned in the interim the funding cuts will be devastating to medical and technological advancement.

Here are things Trump has done — or tried to do — to the nation’s oldest school after it rejected his demands:

Billions in funding paused

The first line of attack came with a $2.2 billion research funding pause on April 14, soon after Harvard announced the federal government’s demands were a nonstarter and illegal.

“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,” Harvard University President Alan Garber said.

While Harvard has said it will work with the administration on combatting campus antisemitism, it will not give up its independence.

“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said when the funding was pulled.

Harvard quickly sued the administration, with a court date set for July.

Admin threatens to take away Harvard’s ability to admit foreign students

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to ban Harvard from admitting any more foreign students on April 17.

Noem said Harvard had to hand over records about foreign students who have been involved in illegal or violent activity by April 30 to avoid the consequences. There has been no update from the secretary on this issue.

The DHS said it will also cancel two grants to the school worth $2.7 million.

“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

Education Department requests foreign disclosure records

On April 18, the Education Department requested records from Harvard regarding allegations of “incomplete and inaccurate” foreign financial disclosures.

It is requesting a list of all gifts and grants from all foreign sources, data regarding all expelled foreign students since 2016, information regarding all faculty affiliated with or from a foreign country and those involved in the expulsion of foreign students, among other things.

Universities need to disclose financial gifts valued at more than $250,000 annually.

“As a recipient of federal funding, Harvard University must be transparent about its relations with foreign sources and governments. Unfortunately, our review indicated that Harvard has not been fully transparent or complete in its disclosures, which is both unacceptable and unlawful,” McMahon said.

Title VI investigation into Harvard, Harvard Law Review

The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services launched a Title VI investigation against Harvard and the Harvard Law Review on April 28 over alleged race-based discrimination

“Harvard Law Review’s article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” Department of Education acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said.

One editor of the Harvard Law Review allegedly said, “a piece should be subject to expedited review because the author was a minority” while another said it was concerned that many of the students who wanted to reply to an article about police reform “are white men.”

“Title VI’s demands are clear: recipients of federal financial assistance may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. No institution—no matter its pedigree, prestige, or wealth—is above the law. The Trump Administration will not allow Harvard, or any other recipients of federal funds, to trample on anyone’s civil rights,” Trainor said.

Trump threatens tax-exempt status

Arguably the most dangerous risk so far to the university is Trump threatening to revoke its tax-exempt status.

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” he wrote on May 2 on Truth Social.

If Harvard had its tax-exempt status taken away, it would owe money on some of its over $50 billion endowment, federal, state, local and property taxes, significantly affecting the Ivy League school’s finances.

Legal experts say Trump’s threat alone could be breaking the law as the president is not allowed to direct or even disclose IRS investigations.

“The government has long exempted universities from taxes in order to support their educational mission. The tax exemption means that more of every dollar can go toward scholarships for students, lifesaving and life-enhancing medical research, and technological advancements that drive economic growth. There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status,” a Harvard spokesperson said.

Harvard can’t apply for new research grants

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a letter to Harvard on May 5 saying it is no longer eligible for new research grants, a move likely to prompt further legal challenge from the school.

“Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided,” McMahon wrote.

In a press call regarding the move, a senior department official said the action applies to research grants and not other federal funding such as student aid.

The department says Harvard will have to solve problems with antisemitism, alleged race-based discrimination at the Harvard Law Review, the “abandonment of rigor and academic excellence” and a lack of “viewpoint diversity” on campus to be able to apply for new grants.

“The bottom line of the letter is the Trump administration won’t stand by as taxpayer dollars are used to support policies that tolerate antisemitism or that support racist policies,” the senior department official said.

More funding pauses

On May 13, the Trump administration announced another $450 million in funding was being frozen.

The administration said the additional funding pause was due to “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment.”

“Harvard’s campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination. This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it’s not academic freedom; it’s institutional disenfranchisement,” the White House’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in a statement.

The funding cut came after Harvard’s president sent a letter to McMahon saying they “share common ground on a number of critical issues, including the importance of ending antisemitism and other bigotry on campus.”

However, the president slammed the administration’s actions, alleging those shared goals are “undermined and threatened by the federal government’s overreach into the constitutional freedoms of private universities and its continuing disregard of Harvard’s compliance with the law.”