Trump Turned Up the Pressure on Harvard

President Trump suggested today that Harvard University could be stripped of its tax-exempt status after the school refused to bow to the government’s demands. Federal law prohibits the president from directing the I.R.S. to investigate specific organizations, but Trump’s threat was nevertheless a dramatic escalation in the feud between the government and the nation’s richest and oldest university.

Just yesterday, the Trump administration announced that it would freeze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard after the school rebuffed a series of changes to its policies and curriculum.

The administration has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding from colleges and universities over diversity hiring practices and tolerance of anti-Israel protests on campuses which have sometimes included antisemitic behavior. These seven schools have been singled out for punitive funding cuts or notified that their funding is in jeopardy.

Critics of Trump cheered Harvard’s resistance as an example for other institutions to follow. Harvard would face a significant financial burden if it lost its tax exempt status, but is uniquely positioned to withstand a showdown with the government because of its endowment of more than $50 billion.

Columbia University, which last month agreed to major concessions the government had demanded, changed its tune today. Its new acting president announced that the school would reject any deal that erodes its independence.