The Trump administration is seeking $1 billion (£730m) in damages from what the US president branded the “strongly antisemitic” Harvard University in the latest development in a long-running feud with the institution.
In this fresh round of hostilities, Donald Trump accused Harvard of "serious and heinous illegalities", but did not clarify how he believed it had broken the law.
The new demand comes after a year-long back and forth with the prestigious university, which began when it was included in a list from the US Department of Education of 60 academic institutions threatened with a funding block worth billions of dollars due to what it alleged were “relentless antisemitic eruptions”.
The list was published in March 2025 along with a letter was sent out by the department, with US secretary of education Linda McMahon saying the body was “deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite US campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life”.
Universities needed to “do better”, the education secretary added.
Several lawsuits were filed and subsequently settled by Harvard – one of which required the university to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
With the government unwavering on the funding block, Harvard announced last April that it was planning to borrow $750m (£546m) to compensate for the lack of funding – and later said that it would be suing the Trump administration.
Harvard’s long-awaited report into antisemitism on campus found that some pro-Palestinian protestors at campus demonstrations “crossed a line from a call for freedom and security for Palestinians and Jews alike to a stereotyped notion” and that some Jews on campus felt unable to go about their normal university activities because of it.
In a statement published along with the report last April, Harvard president Alan Garber, who is Jewish, apologised for “the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community”.
“Harvard cannot – and will not – abide bigotry,” Garber stated at the time. “We will continue to provide for the safety and security of all members of our community and safeguard their freedom from harassment.”
However, despite the release of the report, the following month, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that the Trump administration had cancelled Harvard University’s visa programme over what she said was the university’s failure to provide information about alleged antisemitism on campus and how it was said to be “hostile to Jewish students”.
The build-up of tensions with the university resulted in Trump demanding $200m (£145m) from Harvard. However, the New York Times reported on Monday that Trump had backtracked on this demand.
Almost immediately, Trump rubbished the article, claimed that Harvard had been feeding the newspaper false information and made his new billion-dollar demand.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: “We are now seeking one billion dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University.”
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