President Donald Trump of the United States has threatened to cut another $1 billion in funding for Harvard University.
Recall that the Trump’s administration has withheld government funding from Harvard, Columbia and other universities in response to their tolerance of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in what the administration has labeled a failure to control antisemitism on campus.
Last week, Harvard pushed back, rejecting demands for control of its student body, faculty and curriculum, saying that would cede control of the university to government.
A few hours after Harvard took its stand, the Trump’s administration said it was freezing $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school and the next day threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal, reported the plans to pull an additional $1 billion in research funds arose after administration officials thought a long list of demands they sent Harvard on April 11 was a confidential starting point for negotiations.
According to the Journal, Trump’s officials had been planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia but now want to increase the pressure on Harvard.
The White House and Harvard have not commented on the development at the time of filing this report.
The US president, since his January inauguration, has cracked down on top US universities, saying they mishandled last year’s pro-Palestinian protests and allowed antisemitism to intensify on campus.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, said their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.