Trump admin cuts additional $450 million in grants to Harvard in escalating showdown

The Trump administration is slashing another $450 million in grants to Harvard University, marking the latest escalation in its ongoing effort to assert greater control over the nation's oldest and wealthiest university. This comes on top of $2.2 billion in federal funding, which was cancelled earlier.

“(E)ight federal agencies across the government are announcing the termination of approximately $450 million in grants to Harvard, which is in addition to the $2.2 billion that was terminated” previously, the White House’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said Tuesday morning in a statement that called Harvard’s campus “a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination.”

Amid the ongoing battle with the prestigious university as it challenges the funding cuts in court, Trump's education secretary has earlier this month said that Harvard will no longer receive federal grants.

The Trump administration has for weeks locked horns with Harvard and other higher education institutions over claims they tolerate anti-Semitism on their campuses -- threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and enrollment of foreign students.

Harvard -- routinely ranked among the world's top universities -- has drawn Trump's ire by refusing to comply with his demands that it accept government oversight of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant.

That prompted the Trump administration to in mid-April freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding, with a total of $9 billion under review.

Harvard is the wealthiest US university with an endowment valued at $53.2 billion in 2024.

The latest move comes as Trump and his White House crack down on US universities on several fronts, justified as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.

The administration has threatened funding freezes and other punishments, prompting concerns over declining academic freedom.

It has also moved to revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in the protests, accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel provoked the war.