Donald Trump has announced that his administration is seeking $1bn in damages from Harvard University, escalating a long-running feud over allegations of antisemitism. In a post on Truth Social late on Monday, the US president accused the Ivy League school of being “strongly antisemitic” and criticised its president, Alan Garber, for failing to address the situation.
The announcement came hours after the New York Times reported that Trump had dropped a previous demand for $200m as part of a settlement over claims that Harvard failed to tackle antisemitism on campus. Citing the article, Trump accused Harvard of “feeding a lot of ‘nonsense’ to the failing New York Times” and behaving “very badly for a long time”.
Since returning to office, Trump has targeted higher education institutions, including Harvard, accusing them of mishandling antisemitism and allowing civil rights violations. Academics and free speech experts have denounced the charges as a threat to academic freedom. The Trump administration has previously threatened to withhold $9bn in federal research funding, demanded an end to diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, and required reporting of international students who violate campus rules.
Harvard sued the administration in April last year, arguing it was trying to “gain control of academic decision-making”. Garber vowed that the university would not “surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights”. In September, a federal judge ruled that Trump had unlawfully cancelled $2.2bn in research grants, barring the administration from cutting Harvard’s funding. Weeks later, Trump claimed a deal had been reached requiring Harvard to pay $500m, but his administration appealed the judge’s ruling in December.
