On one side is America’s oldest and wealthiest university whose motto is “Veritas”, the Latin for truth; on the other side a belligerent US President who communicates primarily through his Truth Social platform.

So when Harvard University clashed with Donald Trump, it was always likely to get messy. But the unfolding showdown between the pair is extraordinarily rancorous, even by the acrimonious standards of modern American politics, and looks set to have profound ramifications for the future of US higher education.

This week, the 389-year-old Massachusetts university became the first institution of its kind to reject White House demands to overhaul hiring, admissions and teaching practices, underpinned by officials’ fears that colleges have become hotbeds of anti-Semitism.

Since re-entering the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented war on what he sees to be “woke” campuses across the US, and his administration did not take kindly to Harvard’s opposition.

Within hours of the university announcing it would not acquiesce on Monday, the US Department of Education froze more than $2 billion in federal funding previously destined for the Ivy League school.

Trump was unequivocal in his criticism. “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. The university, for its part, argued yielding to the demands would undermine the intellectual freedoms of its faculty and students.