After fund freeze, Trump may double down on Harvard

new york: U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status on Tuesday and said the university should apologize, a day after it rejected what it called unlawful demands to overhaul academic programs or lose federal grants.

Beginning with Columbia University, the Trump administration has rebuked universities across the country over their handling of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled campuses last year following the 2023 Hamas-led attack inside Israel and the subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Trump has called the protests anti-American and antisemitic, accused universities of peddling Marxism and “radical left” ideology, and promised to end federal grants and contracts to universities that do not agree to his administration’s demands.

Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday he was mulling whether to seek to end Harvard’s tax-exempt status if it continued pushing what he called “political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’”

He did not say how he would do this. Under the U.S. tax code, most universities are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be “operated exclusively” for public educational purposes.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump wanted to see Harvard apologize for what she called “antisemitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students.”

She accused Harvard and other schools of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal funding based on race or national origin.

Under Title VI, federal funds can be terminated only after a lengthy investigation and hearings as well as a 30-day notice to Congress, which has not happened at

Columbia or Harvard.