United States President Donald Trump renewed his threat to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status, which can cost the Ivy League Institution billions of dollars. The university recently sued the Trump administration for halting the government’s pause of more than $2 billion for the institution. The Education Department, the Health Department, the Justice Department, the Energy Department, and the General Services Administration were also named in the lawsuit.
Trump Targets Harvard in Social Media Post
Trump wrote on a social media post, “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” The president made the post on Truth Social, which is his social media platform for him and his supporters, especially his hardcore followers. Trump’s statement is the latest threat in the ongoing feud between him and Harvard, the country’s oldest higher-education institution.
Since returning to the office for his second term on January 20, Trump has sought complete control over US universities. He has sought to crack down on what he considers “illegal protests” on college campuses. Harvard has been a target for Trump’s public ire since school leaders refused to submit to a list of demands the Trump administration sent on April 11. Trump officials sent a letter to Harvard with a list of demands that was five pages long.
The letter had provisions for the university to investigate students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, change its student disciplinary system, eliminate DEI programs, and have an audit of programs deemed to be anti-Semitic. Also, in April, MAGA demanded a boycott of Starbucks after workers protested the ICE detainments of undocumented immigrants. The letter required the university to initiate “viewpoint diversity” in hiring and admission work.
Critics argued that this mandate was a tactic by the Trump administration to impose a political litmus test on Harvard. The university’s President Alan Garber rejected the letter and said in a statement, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. 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.”
The Trump administration swiftly responded with a funding freeze of more than $2 billion in grants and contracts for the institution. Harvard then pushed back by filing a lawsuit, calling Trump’s move “leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard”. Trump has since turned to threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status, further escalating the back-and-forth between the university and the Republican president.
Final Thoughts
Under US law, educational institutions, nonprofits, charities, and institutions of scientific research are eligible to apply for tax-exempt status. The tax-exempt status allows those organizations relief from paying property and federal income taxes. Trump took things further, suggesting that the university should lose its tax-exempt status due to its handling of the pro-Palestinian protests. “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax-Exempt Status and be taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?,” Trump wrote on social media.
In a joint letter by Democratic Senators, including Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, and Chuck Schumer, they wrote, “The President is targeting the non-profit status of Harvard University for blatantly political purposes. The president’s call for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status raises troubling constitutional questions, including whether the president is trying to squelch Harvard’s free speech rights and whether the revocation of its tax-exempt status will deprive the university of its due process rights.”
