President Donald Trump on Monday night raised his demands in the standoff with Harvard, saying on Truth Social that Harvard must pay the government directly and that the amount he is seeking to end the dispute has increased to $1 billion. The comments came after Trump previously indicated a deal was close and after negotiations appeared to shift toward a proposal that would have involved Harvard putting money into a new set of trade schools rather than making a payment.
Trump’s post also said Harvard has been “behaving very badly,” and it added that his administration wants “nothing further to do” with Harvard in the future. The president’s remarks were issued in response to a New York Times report that said Trump had dropped a demand for a financial payment, according to the Associated Press. Trump denied he was backing down.
The dispute appears to be moving further away from resolution as both sides remain positioned at odds over what a settlement would require. Harvard officials did not immediately comment, the Associated Press reported.
The standoff has unfolded against the backdrop of broader federal pressure on elite universities. The Trump administration has said it is punishing Harvard for tolerating anti-Jewish bias on campus, while Harvard has argued in lawsuits that it is being unfairly penalized for refusing to adopt the administration’s views.
In April, the administration pursued demands affecting the university, and the White House then carried out actions including cutting billions of dollars from Harvard’s federal research funding and attempting to block the school from enrolling foreign students after the campus rebuffed those government demands, according to the Associated Press account. The article said those moves are part of a larger effort to bring universities “to heel” and to counter what Trump administration officials have described as liberal thinking and anti-Jewish bias on campus.
A federal judge in December reversed the funding cuts and called the antisemitism argument a “smokescreen,” according to the Associated Press. The article said Harvard has pursued legal relief in a pair of lawsuits challenging the administration’s actions.
Trump’s escalation also followed earlier statements from his administration describing negotiations with Harvard as nearly concluded. Last June, Trump said a deal was just days away and that Harvard had acted “extremely appropriately” during talks. He later said an agreement was being finalized that would have required Harvard to put $500 million toward creating “a series of trade schools,” rather than making a payment to the government.
That trade-school proposal, however, appears to have collapsed. In the social media post cited by the Associated Press, Trump said the trade school idea was rejected because it was “convoluted” and “wholly inadequate,” a sign that his administration is again emphasizing a direct financial payment as the centerpiece of any resolution.
The White House’s approach has included similar negotiations with other universities, the Associated Press reported. The article said the White House invited nine universities last fall to join a “compact” offering funding priority in exchange for adopting Trump’s agenda, but none accepted. It also said the administration abandoned its legal defense of an Education Department document that threatened to cut schools’ funding over diversity, equity and inclusion policies in January.
Other agreements described by the Associated Press have included payments to the government. The article said Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million, and Brown University agreed to pay $50 million toward state workforce development groups, illustrating how the administration has used funding leverage as a bargaining tool with universities beyond Harvard.