Tipsheet

Trump Administration Cuts $450 Million More in Harvard Grants, and That May Not Be All

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 14, 2025 8:30 PM

The Trump administration and Harvard University aren't done with each other after cuts came this month and last month. If anything, it only looks like the fight is getting more intense, especially with Harvard claiming "academic independence" after failing to control the rampant antisemitism taking place on campus. The university even sued the administration and this week expanded the lawsuit. Such a move came after the administration cut $450 million more from the university, and that may not be the end of it. 

As The New York Post covered:

“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” members of Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in a statement.

“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 center of academic excellence.”

The cuts are coming from at least eight different federal agencies, and are taking place after the task force — which comprises the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services as well as the General Services Administration — terminated $2.2 billion in grants last week.

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The $2.2 billion in additional medical and other research grants were yanked by the National Institutes of Health, according to a May 6 letter from NIH director for extramural research Michelle Bulls.

“You may object and provide information and documentation challenging these terminations,” the NIH official added, asking for a response within 30 days.

But the letter also warned that “no corrective action is possible here.”

Other letters trickled in from the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Education and the National Science Foundation “announcing the termination of awards,” according to Harvard’s new complaint filed in Massachusetts federal court.

“To date, the Government has — with little warning and even less explanation — slashed billions of dollars in federal funding to universities across America, including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern,” the lawsuit states.

“This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon had warned Harvard administrators in a separate letter last week not to apply for further federal grants, “since none will be provided.”

Just as the university tried to claim when announcing in a letter from President Alan Garber that they wouldn't be complying with the administration, Harvard is still trying to claim they are against antisemitism.

"Make no mistake: Harvard rejects antisemitism and discrimination in all of its forms and is actively making structural reforms to eradicate antisemitism on campus," Harvard’s legal team said in a statement included in reporting from The New York Post. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has long stood up against antisemitism, including as it applies to universities like Harvard failing to properly quell it, shared the article over X on Tuesday.

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"President Trump is holding anti-American, antisemitic universities accountable. If they refuse to follow federal law, they won’t be funded by U.S. taxpayers," Stefanik's post mentioned in part, also framing the cuts as a matter of "Promise Made. Promise kept."

Stefanik also confronted university presidents, including then President Claudine Gay of Harvard at a December 2023 House Committee hearing. Gay and others failed to properly answer as to if calling for the genocide of Jews was against the code of conduct. Gay as well as Liz Magill, then the president of the University of Pennsylvania ultimately resigned, though Gay still held on for close to a month, and it wasn't until she was rocked with accusations of plagiarism that she ultimately did resign. 

Speaking once more of the current president, Garber is taking a 25 percent voluntary pay cut for fiscal year 2026. It would be laughable for anyone to feel sorry for him, though. "While Garber’s salary for fiscal year 2025 has not yet been made public, Harvard presidents have historically earned upward of $1 million annually — meaning that a 25 percent pay cut could amount to a six-figure reduction. Fiscal year 2026 begins in July," the Harvard Crimson mentioned. 

At the end of last month, Harvard released a report on antisemitism, but also one on Islamophobia, with Guy aptly calling the university out for their "Disgraceful 'Bothsideism.'"