Trump administration terminates another $450 million in grants to Harvard

The US Department of Education informed Harvard last week that it was freezing billions of dollars in future research grants until it concedes to the administration's demands.

 Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest organized by the City of Cambridge calling on Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the federal government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. April 12, 2025.  (photo credit: NICHOLAS PFOSI/REUTERS)
Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest organized by the City of Cambridge calling on Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the federal government in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. April 12, 2025.
(photo credit: NICHOLAS PFOSI/REUTERS)

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that eight federal agencies will terminate another $450 million in grants to Harvard University, on top of $2.2 billion in federal funding it canceled last week.

An administration antisemitism task force cited what it described as a failure by the elite Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school to confront what it called "pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment plaguing its campus."

"There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school's claim to taxpayer support," the task force said in a joint statement.

Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Harvard is already suing over the administration's decision to cut off grant funding after it refused to cede to what the university's president has said are illegal demands from the administration "to control whom we hire and what we teach."

 Demonstrators take part in an ''Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,'' amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., October 14, 2023.  (credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)
Demonstrators take part in an ''Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,'' amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., October 14, 2023. (credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)

Demands for Harvard to restructure its governance 

Those demands included calls for the private university to restructure its governance, alter its hiring and admissions practices to ensure an ideological balance of viewpoints, and terminate certain academic programs.

The US Department of Education informed Harvard last week that it was freezing billions of dollars in future research grants and other aid until the nation's oldest and wealthiest college concedes to the administration's demands.