Trump Says He Wants $1 Billion From Harvard in New Attack

President Donald Trump said he’s seeking $1 billion in “damages” from Harvard University, renewing his long fight with the Ivy League school after a report that his administration was backing off its financial demands.

Trump issued his latest broadside hours after the New York Times reported that his administration had retreated from pressuring Harvard for $200 million to satisfy accusations of wrongdoing.

“This case will continue until justice is served,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform late Monday night. He asserted that Harvard had been “feeding a lot of ‘nonsense’ to the failing New York Times.”

Since his second term began more than a year ago, Trump has sought to scrap federal research funding for Harvard and threatened the school’s tax-exempt status. While he initially accused the school of failing to tackle antisemitism on campus after Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, the fight broadened into a national debate over academic freedom, ideological diversity and the government’s role in supporting higher education.

In contrast to Ivy League schools such as Columbia and Brown that have reached deals with Trump, Harvard has publicly fought back. Harvard President Alan Garber said early on that the extent of the government’s demands showed that the “intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism,” and the school went on to file two lawsuits against the government.

Trump didn’t specify under what authority he would seek the $1 billion. Harvard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an article published Monday, the Times reported that administration officials had dropped their demands for the $200 million “amid sagging approval ratings for Mr. Trump, and as he faces outrage over immigration enforcement tactics and the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minnesota.”

Rising opposition to the Trump administration strengthens Harvard’s position, said Anurima Bhargava, a leader of the Crimson Courage alumni group. The university should be more resistant to reaching any settlement with the White House given its recent “reckless disregard” for the rule of law, she said.

“The administration’s wild overreach in Minnesota and elsewhere is becoming more apparent,” Bhargava said. “Harvard has an increasing upper hand.”

In a later post after midnight Tuesday, Trump called the Times article “completely wrong” and demanded that it be changed. In the morning, he assailed the newspaper as a “corrupt, unprincipled, and pathetic vehicle of the Left.”

Earlier: Harvard President to Stay on Indefinitely Amid Trump Clash

Harvard sued the government twice and won a court victory in September when a federal judge ruled that the US illegally halted research funding and said the administration “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

The administration appealed that ruling in December, but the frozen funds have been largely restored. The same month, Harvard announced that Garber had agreed to stay on as president for “an indefinite time beyond” mid-2027, extending his leadership of the oldest and richest US university. Bloomberg Janet Lorin reports.  President Donald Trump said he’s seeking $1 billion in “damages” from Harvard University, renewing his long fight with the Ivy League school after a report that his administration was backing off its financial demands.

Trump issued his latest broadside hours after the New York Times reported that his administration had retreated from pressuring Harvard for $200 million to satisfy accusations of wrongdoing.

“This case will continue until justice is served,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform late Monday night. He asserted that Harvard had been “feeding a lot of ‘nonsense’ to the failing New York Times.”

Since his second term began more than a year ago, Trump has sought to scrap federal research funding for Harvard and threatened the school’s tax-exempt status.

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