President escalates confrontation with Ivy League institution, abandoning settlement talks after accusing university officials of leaking negotiation details to the press.
U.S. President Donald Trump has abruptly terminated settlement negotiations with Harvard University, announcing a new demand for $1 billion (£730m) in damages. The ultimatum marks a significant escalation in the White House’s ideological war against what it describes as “woke” indoctrination in higher education.
The announcement, made via Truth Social late Monday, follows a New York Times report alleging that the administration had been forced to retreat from an earlier demand for a $200 million payment. President Trump dismissed the report as “nonsense” purportedly fed to the media by university representatives, using the incident to justify a five-fold increase in financial penalties.
We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University.
While the President accused the university of “serious and heinous illegalities,” he did not provide specific evidence or legal grounds for the new financial claim. He further threatened to permanently sever federal ties with the institution.
The Battle for Academic Control
The conflict stems from an executive order issued in April of last year, in which the Trump administration froze federal funding and revoked approximately $2 billion in research grants. The White House justified the move by accusing Harvard of failing to adequately address antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests and promoting “radical left” ideologies.
Harvard responded with a lawsuit arguing that the government cannot “dictate what private universities can teach.” A federal court subsequently sided with the university, ruling that the funding cuts violated First Amendment free speech rights and ordering the reinstatement of the grants.
Despite the court ruling, which the White House has vowed to challenge as an “egregious decision,” the administration has maintained that Harvard remains ineligible for future grants. This stance complicates the university’s financial planning, unlike competitors Columbia, Brown, and Penn, all of whom recently struck deals with the administration to preserve their federal funding streams.
SOURCES: Truth Social, The New York Times, US Federal Court Filings, Harvard University Statements.
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