The Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, then demanded a $1 billion payment to settle—doubling the previous demand. Trump said Harvard has been “behaving very badly” and that his administration wants “nothing further to do” with the school.
On February 7, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon was cutting all military education ties with Harvard, ending graduate-level programs, fellowships, and certificates, calling Harvard “woke” and claiming officers returned with “heads full of globalist and radical ideologies.” Hegseth declared, “We train warriors, not wokesters.”
A federal judge ruled the funding cuts were unlawful, calling the administration's antisemitism justification a “smokescreen.” Despite this, Trump's administration appealed. Columbia University paid $200 million and Brown University paid $50 million to settle similar disputes—establishing a pattern of universities paying tribute to avoid federal retaliation. This is the weaponization of federal funding to punish institutions for political dissent.
Update (September 21, 2026): the pressure has not stopped with the court loss. Politico reported on September 19, citing two unnamed administration officials, that Trump asked NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya in an Oval Office meeting to cut Harvard's funding, that Bhattacharya refused, and that Trump then had an executive order drafted to put NIH grant decisions under a board his budget director sits on. The Harvard request is reported by Politico alone (see Trump Drafted an Order Giving His Budget Chief a Veto Over NIH Grants, Then Backed Off After Susan Collins Objected).
Related entries: Hegseth Bans Military Recruiting at Elite Universities Over DEI Policies and Threatens to Cut ROTC Programs.
Update (October 7, 2026): At a First Circuit argument on October 6 over Trump's since-expired proclamation barring Harvard's international students, a Justice Department lawyer said the president would likely issue it again if the injunction were lifted: “I can't reveal exact conversations or with who, but I have been told by people with the White House that it's likely he would reissue,” Tiberius Davis said, adding that “The secretaries could give exceptions for people from Israel or Jews who want to attend.” Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson: “This isn't an entry bar. It's a bar to go to Harvard.” Harvard's lawyer, Paul Clement, agreed the case is still live: “This is perhaps the one thing in the whole case we agree with the government on.” The panel may still dismiss the appeal as moot.