Trump Harvard: Trump administration halts $2.2bn in Harvard funds after university rejects demands - Barack Obama condemns as 'unlawful'

It comes after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus. The hold on Harvard’s funding marks the seventh time President Donald Trump’s administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Mr Trump’s political agenda.

In a letter to Harvard on Friday, Mr Trump’s administration had called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognising some student clubs.

The federal government said almost nine billion US dollars in grants and contracts in total were at risk if Harvard did not comply. On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government’s demands.

Hours later, the government froze billions in Harvard’s federal funding. The first university targeted by the Trump administration was Columbia, which acquiesced to the government’s demands under the threat of billions of dollars in cuts.

The administration also has paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Northwestern. The government’s demands included that Harvard institute what it called “merit-based” admissions and hiring policies and conduct an audit of the study body, faculty and leadership on their views about diversity.

The administration also called for a ban on face masks at Harvard, an apparent target of pro-Palestinian campus protesters, and pressured the university to stop recognising or funding “any student group or club that endorses or promotes criminal activity, illegal violence, or illegal harassment”. Harvard’s defiance, the federal antisemitism task force said on Monday, “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.”

Obama praised Harvard for setting an example for other higher education institutions to reject federal overreach into its governance practices. He wrote in a post on X: “Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”