The United States government on Tuesday announced additional funding cuts to Harvard University, just one day after the institution’s president expressed alignment with the Trump administration on several key issues.
In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that federal agencies are pulling an additional $450 million in grants from Harvard.
This comes on top of $2.2 billion in funding cuts already announced last week. The agency cited a “dark problem” of discrimination at the Ivy League institution.
Harvard, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading universities, has challenged the Trump administration in court, accusing it of unlawfully attempting to interfere in its internal affairs.
The funding crackdown is part of a broader effort by the administration to target U.S universities, which officials claim are plagued by unchecked anti-Semitism and overreliant on diversity programs that they argue unfairly privilege identity over merit.
Despite this tension, Harvard President Alan Garber struck a conciliatory tone in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday.
“We share common ground on a number of critical issues,” he wrote.
Garber acknowledged the university had embarked on sweeping reforms following “an extraordinarily painful year for our community” after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
“The challenges of that academic year have led to meaningful reform and recommendations designed to eliminate antisemitism and other forms of hate from our campus,” Garber added.
However, those internal efforts were not sufficient to halt the termination of at least one major federal grant.
In a legal filing submitted on Tuesday, Harvard revealed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had rejected any possibility of reinstating funding.
According to the termination letter cited in the filing, the NIH wrote that while it normally permits grantees to make corrections and restore funding, there was “no corrective action possible here.”
Although Garber denied that the university was aligned with any political ideology or party, he did acknowledge a need for broader intellectual diversity at Harvard.
He also stressed that admissions were based on “individuals and their unique characteristics,” not race.
Still, the Trump administration remains unsatisfied.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism condemned Harvard as “a breeding ground for virtue signalling and discrimination.”
The statement also referenced the findings of Harvard’s internal investigation, which revealed that Jewish students had been targets of repeated verbal abuse, physical assaults, and intimidation on campus.
“Harvard, and its leadership group who are tainted by the egregious infractions under its watch, faces a steep, uphill battle to reclaim its legacy as a lawful institution and centre of academic excellence,” the statement concluded.
