President Donald Trump announced that he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University and flatly rejected a New York Times report claiming that his administration had backtracked on demands for a financial payment to resolve charges of anti-Semitism and civil rights violations.
"Strongly Antisemitic Harvard University has been feeding a lot of 'nonsense' to The Failing New York Times. Harvard has been, for a long time, behaving very badly!" Trump posted Monday night on Truth Social. "We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University."
Trump's post came in response to a Times report that the White House was no longer demanding a $200 million payment from Harvard to resolve claims that the university let anti-Semitism run rampant on campus. Anti-Semitism at Harvard, which had been mounting before Oct. 7, 2023, was exposed by the university's response to the attacks, which prompted bipartisan condemnation and congressional and federal investigations. After Trump took office, he froze federal funding for the university. A judge restored some of it, but the federal government is appealing, and even if existing funds are restored, a cutoff of future funds would be painful to Harvard.
"The Failing New York Times story was completely wrong concerning Harvard University," Trump said in a follow-up post. "I hereby demand that the morons that run (into the ground!) the Times' change their story, immediately."
The president also said Harvard tried pitching a "convoluted job training concept, but it was turned down in that it was wholly inadequate and would not have been, in our opinion, successful."
"It was merely a way of Harvard getting out of a large cash settlement of more than 500 Million Dollars, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed," Trump continued. "This should be a Criminal, not Civil, event, and Harvard will have to live with the consequences of their wrongdoings. In any event, this case will continue until justice is served."
Harvard had already rejected the Trump administration's demands to cut a $200 million check to the U.S. Treasury. Some university officials, however, believe the Ivy League school has no other option and will eventually need to strike a deal.
Madi Biedermann, the acting chief of staff for the Department of Education, told the Times that negotiations remain ongoing.
Harvard has continued to face new accusations of anti-Semitism and discrimination even after the White House started pressuring the university. In May, for example, the Trump administration stripped $450 million in federal grants, citing two Washington Free Beacon reports, one on racial discrimination at the Harvard Law Review and the other on a fellowship that the law review awarded to a student accused of accosting an Israeli classmate.
In a statement, Times spokeswoman Nicole Taylor defended the newspaper's story.
"President Trump and the administration have demonstrated a pattern of criticizing accurate reporting that illuminates new facts about their efforts," she said, noting that the story was "based on extensive reporting, including conversations with Harvard and Trump officials."
Harvard did not respond to Free Beacon requests for comment.
