US President Donald Trump is threatening to cut another $1 billion in funding for Harvard University, this time targeting health research, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, as the administration’s row with elite schools escalated.
The Trump administration has withheld government funding from Harvard, Columbia, and other universities ostensibly over pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel campus protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the deadly October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.
Trump has cast the protesters as foreign policy threats who are antisemitic and sympathetic to the Hamas terror group. The Trump administration is also attempting to deport some foreign protesters and has revoked hundreds of visas across the country.
Harvard pushed back last week, rejecting demands for control of its student body, faculty, and curriculum, saying that would cede control of the university to the government.
Within hours of Harvard taking its stand, the administration announced it was freezing $2.3 billion in federal funding to the school and the next day threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status.
The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the plans to pull an additional $1 billion in research funds arose after administration officials were surprised when Harvard released to the public a long list of demands they sent on April 11, which the officials had thought was a confidential starting point for negotiations. The New York Times reported Friday that administration officials were claiming that the letter had been sent erroneously.
Students, faculty and members of the Harvard University community rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Trump officials had been planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia, but now want to increase the pressure on Harvard, the Journal reported.
The White House and Harvard did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday.
Since his January inauguration, Trump has cracked down on top US universities, saying they had mishandled last year’s anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests and allowed antisemitism to intensify on campus.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza is wrongly conflated with antisemitism.
A swath of American Jewry is alarmed about the Trump administration’s crackdown, saying it is a threat to due process and free speech, while acknowledging that action is needed to combat rampant antisemitism.
The administration had previously sent a list of demands on April 3 to Harvard for the Ivy League university to continue receiving federal funding. These included a mask ban, removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and more cooperation with law enforcement.
The April 11 letter, signed by officials at the Education Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the General Services Administration, expanded that list. It told Harvard to stop recognizing some pro-Palestinian groups and asked it to report to federal authorities foreign students violating university policies, among other demands.
It’s not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You’re a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘272776440645465’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
