The Trump administration has requested that the Internal Revenue Service rescind Harvard University’s tax-exempt status after the Ivy League school repeatedly rejected the federal government’s demands for various policy reforms as a condition of receiving taxpayer-funded grants.
Harvard’s registration as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which allows it to be exempt from paying taxes and donors to contribute to the institution in exchange for a tax deduction, has been submitted for revocation, three people familiar with the situation told the Washington Post. The move is a significant escalation in the fight between President Trump and universities that have been accused of harboring pro-terrorist sentiment since October 7, when Hamas invaded Israel in the worst onslaught against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Charitable, religious, and educational organizations, as well as social welfare groups, can qualify for tax-exempt status. In order to keep that privilege, those entities must refrain from endorsing political candidates for public office and other political activity. IRS has the power to determine whether an entity is in compliance with the terms of tax-exempt status.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in federal funds to Harvard because of the school’s refusal to address its complaints over its handling of antisemitism and diversity initiatives on its campus. The multi-agency Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism suspended Harvard’s $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and a $60 million contract.
“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the task force said in a statement.
The swift action came in response to Harvard’s letter to the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration — all members of the federal task force. In the letter, Harvard accused the federal government of disregarding the institution’s First Amendment freedoms and failing to prove the alleged harms that inform the administration’s demands.
“It is unfortunate, then, that your letter disregards Harvard’s efforts and instead presents demands that, in contravention of the First Amendment, invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court,” Harvard’s attorneys wrote. “The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law.”
Amid Trump’s aggressive approach to Harvard, liberal media outlets accused the administration of authoritarianism. However, the Obama and Biden administrations regularly used federal law to influence or outright dictate how universities were managed. The Obama administration sued Hillsdale College, which takes no federal funds. Hillsdale’s example has been cited as a rebuke to Harvard, which has said the Trump administration is threatening to usurp its operations. Unlike Harvard, which receives about $9 billion in federal funds, Hillsdale can exercise ideological independence from the government because it takes no federal money.
Harvard’s lawyers declared that “the university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” but it lost the right to that independence when it agreed to be partially bankrolled by the taxpayer.
The Trump administration sent Harvard an expanded list of demands last week for what it must do to create a scholarly and intellectually diverse academic environment that justifies its current level of federal funding.
The demands include merit-based hiring and admissions, screening international admits to prevent terrorism supporters from enrolling, increasing viewpoint diversity in admissions and hiring, allowing an external audit of antisemitic and far-left ideological programs, reducing administrative bloat, ending DEI initiatives, disempowering student activists, enforcing disciplinary policies against campus agitators, protecting whistleblowers, and submitting a transparency report each quarter.
The Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued a stern message to Harvard, warning its federal funding will continue to be in jeopardy if it doesn’t change its campus policies related to antisemitism.
“The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable,” the task force said. “It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”