Trump accuses Harvard University of anti-Semitism, threatens more cuts

United States President Donald Trump says an investigation had concluded Harvard University violated federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment of Jewish and Israeli students.

Though critics and some faculty said such probes are a pretext to assert federal control over schools.

The announcement on Monday, June 30, 2025, could lay the groundwork for further action against the university, which has already seen billions of dollars in grant money frozen by the Trump administration as part of a broader campaign against Harvard and other universities across the country.

Universities have said Trump’s actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights accused Harvard of “deliberate indifference” toward discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, according to a notice from the administration.

The department outlined a series of harassment incidents and faulted Harvard’s response for being “too little, too late”.

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“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources,” lawyers for the administration wrote in a separate letter to Harvard President Alan Garber that was viewed by Reuters.

In a statement, Harvard said it had taken “substantive, proactive steps” to address anti-Semitism on campus, including updating its disciplinary processes and expanding training on anti-Semitism.

“Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government’s findings,” the university said.

Monday’s letter is the latest in a multi-pronged assault that Trump has waged against Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, after it rejected sweeping demands to alter its operations.

The administration has frozen some $2.5 billion in federal grant money to Harvard, moved to block it from enrolling international students and threatened to remove its tax-exempt status. Harvard has filed lawsuits challenging those moves.

In addition to targeted funding freezes at specific schools, the administration’s cutbacks at agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have also resulted in terminated grants to research universities.

The Star