President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, escalating his previous threats against the Ivy League school and potentially expanding an ongoing legal battle.
“It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote in a terse Truth Social post announcing the decision.
The post is the latest escalation in Trump’s campaign against Harvard and other elite schools, based on claims that they have fostered antisemitism and other forms of discrimination on their campuses.
Trump has sought to extract concessions from the institutions by threatening to withhold federal research grants unless the schools make massive changes, many of which give the administration more oversight of its operations.
The State Department and immigration authorities have also targeted thousands of international students by revoking their visas and, in several high-profile cases, detaining individual students.
The Trump administration in mid-April said it would freeze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard. The university filed a lawsuit soon after, calling the government’s flex of power “unprecedented and improper.”
Around the same time, Trump openly considered stripping Harvard of the tax-exempt status that the government grants to most public and private universities and colleges.
“Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!” he wrote on Truth Social on April 15.
The Treasury Department has asked the Internal Revenue Service to consider revoking the school’s tax-exempt status, The New York Times reported last month.
Trump’s Homeland Security secretary recently threatened to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
Harvard did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s post.
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