WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its ongoing battle with Harvard, threatening to revoke the university‘
President Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its ongoing battle with Harvard, threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host international students as the president called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
The Department of Homeland Security ordered Harvard late Tuesday to turn over “detailed records” of its foreign student visa holders ’ “illegal and violent activities” by April 30. International students make up 27% of the campus. The department also said it was canceling two grants to the school totaling $2.7 million.
The moves deepen the crackdown on Harvard, which on Monday became the first university to openly defy the administration’s demands related to activism on campus, antisemitism and diversity. The federal government has already frozen more than $2 billion in grants and contracts to the Ivy League institution.
Trump suggested Tuesday on social media that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status “if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’”
The White House suggested IRS scrutiny of Harvard’s tax status predated the president’s post on Truth Social.
“Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the President, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the President’s TRUTH,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said.
But a person familiar with the matter said the Treasury Department directed Andrew De Mello, the IRS’s acting chief counsel, to begin the process of revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status shortly after Trump’s post. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Federal tax law prohibits senior members of the executive branch from requesting that an IRS employee conduct or terminate an audit or investigation.
Tax exemptions enable universities to receive large donations from major funders who want to decrease their tax burdens, which was instrumental in helping Harvard amass the nation’s largest university endowment at $53 billion.
The hold on federal money for research at Harvard marked the seventh time the administration has taken such a step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges.
