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Trump wants to take away Harvard University's tax-exempt status. Here's why
Trump had earlier ordered to cut $2.2 billion federal funding to Harvard, a move the school sued the administration for.
US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his threat to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status, escalating an already running showdown between the school and his administration.
Trump had earlier ordered to cut $2.2 billion federal funding to Harvard, a move the school sued the administration for.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s tax-exempt status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on Truth Social from Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending the weekend.
The move is unprecedented in US history, and Harvard has said that the administration has no legal basis to take such an action. But why did it all come to this?
Why does Donald Trump want to take away Harvard University’s tax-exempt status?
Donald Trump wants to take away Harvard University’s tax exempt status ever since the school refused to comply with his administration's long list of demands. These demands include broad government and leadership changes and audits of how diversity is viewed on the campus.
The Trump administration also wants Harvard to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, banning masks at campus protests, enacting merit-based hiring and admissions changes, and turning over foreign students’ discipline records.
The federal government also wants to reduce the power held by faculty and administrators who, according to Trump, are “more committed to activism than scholarship.”
This list is not just for Harvard but for almost all Universities in the country. The flash point with the oldest and the wealthiest school in the United States occurred as it was the first school that defied the administration’s orders.
Trump has other measures too, apart from taking away the tax exempt status. The administration is already fighting a legal battle after cutting the university’s $2.2 billion federal funding. It has also threatened to revoke the school’s ability to get visas for international students enrolled in the campus.
Harvard is still putting up a fight. It remains to be seen what turn this battle between one of the most renowned educational institutions in the world and the ‘leader of the free world’ takes from here.
