President Donald Trump is continuing his assault on Harvard University with a threat to pull $3 billion in federal grants while signaling an unexpected potential beneficiary if he follows through: America’s trade schools.
“I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,” Trump wrote in the May 26 Truth Social post. “What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!”
Trump and Harvard have been at odds since his January inauguration, with the Republican president targeting the Ivy League school’s tax-exempt status, its federal funding, its international student body, its diversity programs, and more. Harvard has withstood pressure from the administration to change its hiring, admissions, and other practices to align with Trump’s political priorities. The university and other elite schools have faced allegations of failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism, too. Some of the administration’s pressure tactics: threatening to take away Harvard’s nonprofit status, freezing $3 billion in federal grant dollars, barring the university from enrolling foreign students, and pushing Congress to increase taxes on university endowments.
Harvard has fought back in the courts, winning a temporary restraining order on May 23 that will allow international enrollments to continue as the case makes its way through the courts.
