Under federal law, a president cannot unilaterally order the Internal Revenue Service IRS to investigate or penalize a specific entity
If the agency were to find grounds for revoking Harvard’s tax exemption, it would be required to formally notify the university and provide an opportunity to contest the action
The IRS did not respond to questions regarding the feasibility of Trump’s demand The threat comes amid continued tensions between the Trump administration and Harvard over the university’s handling of anti-Israel protests on its campus
The federal government announced recently that it would freeze $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard due to its failure to fight campus antisemitism That move came after Harvard President Alan Garber stated that Harvard would not comply with the administration’s directives
Subsequent reports indicated that the Trump administration is preparing to freeze another billion dollars in federal funding for Harvard University because the administration was angered by Harvard's decision to publish a letter listing the government's demands as the contents of the letter were supposed to be kept private
Harvard then filed a lawsuit in response to the administration’s funding freeze Earlier this week, Trump indicated that his administration may stop awarding federal grants to Harvard
Trump remarked, according to Reuters, directing his comment to Education Secretary Linda McMahon
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“And it looks like we are not going to be giving them any more grants, right Linda?”
Trump added,
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“A grant is at our discretion and they are really not behaving well So it's too bad”
On Tuesday, Harvard published two internal reviews detailing incidents of discrimination against Jewish, Muslim and Arab students during last year’s protests The reports found that some students feared marginalization for expressing political views
