Trump Administration Freezes $2 Billion in  Funding From Harvard Over Refusal to Enact Antisemitism Rules

The Trump administration announced Monday night that it is freezing over $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after the school refused to comply with the Federal Government’s requirements to deal with antisemitism rampant on its campus.

In a statement responding to Harvard’s decision, the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism slammed “the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges.”

The government said it will withhold $2.2 billion in long-term grants and an additional $60 million in multi-year contracts from the Ivy League school.

Student activist and Harvard alum Shabbos Kestenbaum welcomed the news.

“Excellent news,” Kestenbaum said in an exclusive statement to Belaaz.”This entire showdown boils down to Harvard insisting on violating civil rights law and the Trump administration refusing to allow Americans to fund said violations of civil rights law anymore. More fundamentally, Harvard has no rights under the constitution to federal funds. Harvard students have a right under the constitution not to be discriminated against. Harvard is insisting on the first point but not the second.

This is precisely why I campaigned for President Trump. After working with some of the members of the federal antisemitism task force, I am not surprised they have taken this important step, but I must publicly thank them for the sheer speed of their actions!”

Earlier that day, Harvard formally declined to meet the administration’s conditions.

“The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Harvard stated on its official X account. “Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

Harvard President Alan M. Garber informed the university community via email that the White House had sent an expanded list of demands and warned of consequences for noncompliance.

Among the 10 listed demands: banning international students considered “hostile to American values,” including those who support terrorism, and instituting external reviews of academic programs promoting antisemitic or ideological bias.

The administration also ordered Harvard to dismantle all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including in hiring and admissions, and replace them with merit-based systems.

Garber called the demands “unprecedented.”

“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber said. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields defened the administration’s move.

“President Trump is working to Make Higher Education Great Again by ending unchecked anti-Semitism and ensuring federal taxpayer dollars do not fund Harvard’s support of dangerous racial discrimination or racially motivated violence,” Fields said in a statement.

The administration has issued similar orders to other universities in what it describes as a broader campaign against antisemitism and bias.

Last month, Columbia University accepted nine federal demands, including a protest mask ban, the hiring of 36 arrest-authorized campus security officers, and the appointment of a senior official to oversee departments related to Middle East, South Asian, and African studies.

The administration had frozen $400 million in funding to Columbia, accusing it of failing to protect Jewish students.