Harvard nears ‘mindbogglingly’ historic US deal, announces Donald Trump

Trump in a post on his social media platform Truth Social said the Ivy League school has 'acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right.'

President Donald Trump said his administration has been holding talks with Harvard University and may announce a deal over the next week, potentially ending a standoff that has jeopardized billions of dollars of the school’s funding and ignited a rollicking legal fight.

“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right,” Trump said Friday on Truth Social. “If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”

Trump’s upbeat tone signaled a major potential shift in one of the defining controversies of his term so far as he accused US colleges of fostering antisemitism and slammed them for what he called their liberal bias. Harvard, the oldest and richest US university, has borne the biggest attacks, with Trump canceling more than $2.6 billion in research funding, threatening the school’s tax-exempt status and seeking to prevent it from enrolling foreign students.

Harvard has fired back, questioning the administration’s interest in working together to confront antisemitism and accusing it of “unconstitutional demands” that would devastate academic freedom. The university has sued the government for freezing federal funding and trying to ban foreign students at Harvard.

The White House declined to comment beyond the president’s post. Harvard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and it was unclear how far apart the two sides are in the talks.

Trump has also gone after other schools, freezing federal money at other selective institutions including Northwestern University, Cornell University and Columbia University.

Columbia had been negotiating with the administration to address the funding and in March agreed to a list of demands, including expanding campus police powers, tightening rules over protests and restricting masks used to conceal identities.

While those moves angered some faculty and students, US officials signaled that Columbia was on track for the federal money to be unfrozen. But the deal fell apart after Columbia’s former interim president, Katrina Armstrong, infuriated some of the school’s critics following reports that she downplayed the changes in a zoom meeting with faculty.

Harvard Optimism

The White House has signaled optimism about a Harvard deal in recent weeks. Trump told reporters on June 5 that Harvard was “starting to behave,” and Education Secretary Linda McMahon said at a Bloomberg News event last week that officials had been “making progress in some of the discussions” with the school.

McMahon added that consent decrees have been floated as one way to resolve the Trump administration’s issues with universities. Consent decrees are binding legal agreements that could subject schools to a court-ordered monitor.

Last month, Harvard Corp., the powerful body that oversees the university, selected a conservative lawyer, Kannon Shanmugam, to serve as a member amid the unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration. Harvard Corp. and its chair, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, have been under intense scrutiny since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas against Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza.

Harvard produced reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus in the wake of the attacks. In issuing the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber apologized “for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community.” He has also acknowledged recently experiencing antisemitism at Harvard himself.

Garber has said the Trump administration’s demands represent an unacceptable government intrusion. Harvard has said in two separate lawsuits that the government’s efforts are retaliatory and mark unlawful infringement on the university’s autonomy.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs on Friday ordered the government to allow Harvard to continue enrolling foreign students while their legal fight proceeds, after the administration revoked the university’s right to do so in in May. She didn’t discuss Trump’s separate June 4 proclamation denying Harvard’s foreign students and scholars entry to the US, though her previous block to that entry ban remains in effect until Monday.

Burroughs will hear oral arguments in a separate case about Trump’s funding cuts at Harvard on July 21. In that case, 24 other universities and more than 12,000 Harvard alumni are among the groups that have submitted legal filings in support of the school.

Research Fallout

In addition to scrapping federal research money and some contracts with Harvard, the Trump administration has said that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university won’t be able to receive new funding. The president has also repeatedly called for the school to lose its tax-exempt status, which would have significant financial implications, even with the school’s $53 billion endowment.

The White House’s actions have upended the lives of Harvard’s students, faculty and staff. The funding freeze has hammered research on diseases including cancer and AIDS and led to layoffs on campus. Harvard announced last month that it would put an extra $250 million of its own money toward research to plug at least some of the gap. Some research has also been halted at Boston hospitals affiliated with and funded by the university.

Harvard is a key cog in the broader Massachusetts economy, and its clash with the Trump administration has threatened the health-care, life sciences and technology industries that depend on the talent and startups that come out of the school.

The university has about 6,800 students from other countries, amounting to 27% of the student body. Those students are an important financial resource for Harvard, with many paying full tuition. Even with the favorable court rulings so far, international enrollees at Harvard are still facing visa issues and face substantial uncertainty about whether and when they will make it back to campus.