Trump admin threatens to end all funding of Harvard, ban foreign students

US president warns of possible crackdown on the Ivy League university if it refuses to accept demand to undergo reforms amid ongoing antisemitism controversy.

By World Israel News Staff

Harvard University could face major sanctions if it continues to refuse calls by federal agencies to engage in sweeping reforms, the Trump administration threatened on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump took aim at the Ivy League institution and its hiring practices in a post to his Truth Social account, calling the university a “joke” that has “lost its way.”

“Everyone knows that Harvard has ‘lost its way,'” Trump wrote, while deriding high-profile members of the teaching staff, including former mayors of New York and Chicago, as “Radical Left fools.”

“Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders.'”

The president went on to call for Harvard to be completely stripped of all federal funding.

“Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges. Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds,” he wrote.

Trump’s comments came after a federal antisemitism task force announced on March 31 that it was scrutinizing billions of dollars in federal contracts and grants to Harvard amid allegations that the school has failed to adhere to civil rights laws.

Federal agencies have already temporarily suspended funding of almost every Ivy League school – including Harvard – as investigations into campus antisemitism continue.

Earlier this week, Harvard declared that it would not accept the Trump administration’s demands for sweeping reforms in policies ranging from hiring of staff, admissions, student activities and academic governance.

Some of the demands go beyond the immediate issue of campus antisemitism, including requirements to end all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and to adopt an exclusively merit-based system of of admissions.

Federal authorities are also demanding Harvard provide them with comprehensive data on their hiring practices.

However, Harvard President Alan Garber pushed back, writing in a letter to the university community that “no government… should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

The Department of Homeland Security responded to Garber’s comments on Wednesday by cancelling $2.7 million in department grants to Harvard.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also threatened to bar the school from bringing in foreign students by excluding Harvard from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) unless the university provides detailed records on “illegal and violent activities” by foreign students.

“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” said Noem. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

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