President Trump is going after the fat pocketbooks of Harvard, PBS and other elitist institutions in a deliberate strategy to get them to bend to his administration’s positions.
It’s an effort on Trump’s part to hit his opponents where it hurts the most – right in the wallet. That’s where it breaks them.
Harvard’s $52 billion endowment makes it the richest university in the world, and Trump’s attempt to revoke the university’s tax exempt status would be a severe blow to its ability to raise funds and attract top notch students and faculty.
Trump is also now escalating the fight, demanding to know Harvard’s source of foreign funds. Can the school withstand the disinfectant of sunlight?
“Tax exempt status, I mean, it’s a privilege, it’s really a privilege,” Trump said this week. “And it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard. It’s something that these schools really have to be very, very careful with.”
It’s a question many Americans may now be asking: Why should Harvard and other Ivy League schools be tax exempt?
They don’t provide a service to the average person. The average person’s kids can’t go to Harvard. The school is the very definition of elitism.
Yet Harvard has decided to take Trump on, refusing to yield to the president’s demands after Trump froze $2.2 billion in funding.
Who’s their consultant, Claudine Gay?
Trump is not legally allowed to force the IRS to revoke tax exempt status, but the IRS claims it launched its own investigation into the matter before Trump made it a priority. The law says if you’re a tax exempt organization you can’t take political positions – a strict limitation that Harvard and others may be violating.
While calling Harvard a “disgrace” and “obviously antisemitic,” Trump said there had been no final decision on making the university lose its tax status. But the president is not stopping at Harvard.
The Trump administration is withholding millions in federal funds to Maine to get the state to change its policy on allowing transgender athletes to compete against girls and women.
Trump is also employing the pocketbook strategy to punish public media like PBS – pulling back federal funds because of their liberal bias.
It’s a battle of populism vs. elitism, and one that Trump hopes to have the public on his side.
Locally, tax exempt Harvard is consistently dragging its feet to make payments in lieu of taxes to the city of Boston, a battle every mayor has had to engage in in recent years.
If the IRS revokes the tax exempt status of Harvard and other universities it could have a major impact on the city’s efforts to collect payments.