Donald Trump’s War With Harvard Might Not Go To Plan. Here’s Why

Harvard University’s $53 billion endowment gives the institution more power than others to stand up to the Trump administration’s efforts to force compliance with its agenda, though there are restrictions that limit how the funds can be spent.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers told students and alumni last week that as the wealthiest university in the country, Harvard is well positioned to resist the administration’s demands. “With all of those assets—if Harvard can’t resist, who can?” he said, according to Politico.

Newsweek has contacted Harvard and the White House for comment via email.

People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Scott Eisen/Getty Images

The Context

The Trump administration has withheld federal money from several universities to pressure institutions to comply with President Donald Trump‘s political agenda. The administration has argued that universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza last year. Columbia University caved to the government’s demands under the threat of cuts.

Last month, the administration said it was reviewing $9 billion in federal grants and contracts to Harvard. Harvard on Monday said the university would not bend to the government’s demands, which included shuttering all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and ensuring all hiring, promotion and admissions decisions are merit-based. Hours later, a federal joint task force announced a freeze on $2.2 billion in funding for Harvard.

What To Know

Harvard’s endowment was $53.2 billion in 2024, according to a financial report from the university.

The endowment is the largest source of revenue for the university’s budget. Harvard received $2.4 billion from the endowment in the 2024 fiscal year—accounting for about 37 percent of the university’s $6.4 billion operating expenses that year.

But the university still relies on other sources to fund almost two-thirds of its operating expenses, such as federal and nonfederal research grants.

Furthermore, there are restrictions on how the university can spend the funds, limiting how much could go toward supporting programs that have had funding cut by the Trump administration.

About 70 percent of the annual distribution of endowment funds is directed by donors to be designated for a specific purpose, according to the university.

But Harvard has also taken some recent steps to safeguard against financial difficulties in the face of the Trump administration’s threats to pull funding. In March, officials announced a temporary hiring freeze, saying it is “meant to preserve our financial flexibility until we better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape and can assess the scale of their impact.”

The university appears to be gearing up for a legal fight, having retained two prominent Republican lawyers—William Burck, a former deputy counsel to President George W. Bush, and Robert Hur, who was the special counsel who investigated President Joe Biden‘s handling of classified documents—who told the administration that its demands were unlawful.

“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” they wrote in a letter to the administration on Monday. “Harvard remains open to dialogue about what the university has done, and is planning to do, to improve the experience of every member of its community. But Harvard is not prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”

What People Are Saying

Harvard president Alan Garber said in a statement on Monday: “No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

Former President Barack Obama, an alumnus of Harvard Law, wrote on X that Harvard “has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”

Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican, wrote on X on Monday: “Harvard University has rightfully earned its place as the epitome of the moral and academic rot in higher education.”

She added: “It is time to totally cut off U.S. taxpayer funding to this institution that has failed to live up to its founding motto Veritas. Defund Harvard.”

The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said Harvard’s statement “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”