US President Donald Trump and the Ivy League Harvard University have been involved in a feud ever since Trump returned to the White House. Donald Trump, in his 2nd term, has questioned the institutes that allowed public display of antisemitism following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel that killed over 1300 people. Trump has launched a nationwide crackdown against campus administrations that promoted antisemitism.
Harvard was one of the worst affected as the Donald Trump administration announced removal of its tax-exempt status and also froze Billions of Dollars in funding to the institute. Reportedly, dozens of research projects in the University are now left in limbo after Trump’s funding cuts, and there have been layoffs in several Universities across the US apart from Harvard.
Following Trump’s reaction, Harvard University has been forced to cut down on its expenses drastically. Apart from layoffs, some reports say that now they have been forced to let go of even coffee and desk phones on the campus.
Harvard has received a wave of grant termination notices:
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 16, 2025
“The scale of what happened [Thursday ] is incomprehensible — a bloodbath for research and the wider community.”
“Entire labs are unraveling, and young scientists on training grants may be suddenly adrift; work that… pic.twitter.com/Q6OcbPgX9N
Notably, Harvard had sued Donald Trump when he proposed to freeze their funding
However, Donald Trump is standing firm on his promise that he will cut down on wasteful government spending during his second term, and funding Universities that enable antisemitism is one of the areas he has deemed wasteful.
