Trump reveals Harvard University feud may be coming to an end as he floats 'historic' deal
President Donald Trump has teased that his months-long battle with Harvard University may soon be over, announcing that a deal could emerge 'over the next week or so.'
Thus far, Harvard has been one of the main enemies of the Trump administration, which has lobbed numerous serious accusations at the Ivy League college and yanked billions of dollars in federal funding.
The accusations range from the university not doing enough to constrain antisemitism on campus, to it admitting students with views hostile to American values.
More than three months after the White House 's initial letter to the university calling for major reform, Trump appears optimistic that an agreement is possible.
'We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,' Trump wrote Friday afternoon on Truth Social.
'They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right,' he added. 'If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be 'mindbogglingly' HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.'
Harvard hasn't publicly responded to Trump's sentiments. Daily Mail approached the university for comment.
This comes as a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard's ability to admit foreign students.
On June 4, Trump issued an executive order called Enhancing National Security by Addressing Risks at Harvard University, which suspended the school's student visa program - calling it a 'privilege granted by our government, not a guarantee.'
Harvard has nearly 6,800 international students, making up more than 27 percent of its enrollment in the past academic year.
About one-third of those international students are from China, and Trump has previously accused Harvard of 'coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party,' a claim echoed in the executive order.
Friday's preliminary injunction by US District Judge Allison Burroughs extends a prior temporary block she issued last month against the administration for stopping international students from coming to Harvard.
Outside of Trump's fears about foreign influence on Harvard, he has also expressed concern that university leaders have fostered a breeding ground for antisemitism, making Jewish students feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
A large encampment of pro-Palestine students protesting the Israel-Hamas war formed on Harvard Yard during the 2024 spring semester and lasted for three weeks.
The students wanted the university to divest from the Israeli government and Israeli businesses, but the administration did not acquiesce.
Even before the encampment in April and May of 2024, there were widespread protests at Harvard immediately following the Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
One such protest descended into a confrontation where pro-Palestine demonstrators surrounded a Harvard MBA student and repeatedly shouted 'shame' at him.
Claudine Gay, Harvard's president during much of this turmoil, resigned in January 2024 after she refused to condemn students calling for the genocide of Jews when pressed by members of Congress.
Gay presided over billions of dollars in lost potential donations from wealthy Jewish families appalled by what took place on campus.
That's now on top of the approximately $3.2 billion in grants and contracts Harvard has lost out on from the federal government since Trump took office.
Harvard sued the Trump administration for the federal funding freeze and denies accusations of alleged bias against Jewish students.
Lawyers for Harvard also argue that the attempted revocation of foreign student visas violates its free speech and due process rights under the US Constitution as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that constrains what federal agencies are allowed to do.
Harvard says the Trump administration is retaliating against it because it refused to obey the government's demands to control the school's governance, curriculum and the 'ideology' of its faculty and students.
The federal government sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber on April 11 claiming that the school has 'failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.'
The letter demanded university leaders adopt merit-based admissions policies, stop admitting students who are 'hostile to American values', enforce viewpoint diversity in all academic departments, and immediately end all DEI programs.
Officials explained that they wanted what amounted to progress reports on these goals sent to them so they could ensure that their orders were being followed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after more than 100 days in Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son. Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia. Khalil greeted reporters and cheering supporters as he emerged from security at Newark airport accompanied by his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, and son in a stroller, as well as his legal team and the New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,' he said at a brief press conference after landing. 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil was released from a Louisiana immigration detention facility on Friday evening after a federal judge ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March. The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. In ordering Khalil's immediate release on Friday, federal judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, found that the government had failed to provide evidence that the graduate was a flight risk or danger to the public. '[He] is not a danger to the community,' Farbiarz ruled. 'Period, full stop.' The judge also ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter by detaining them was unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters outside the detention facility where an estimated 1,000 men are being held, Khalil said: 'Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this. That doesn't mean there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.' 'No one is illegal – no human is illegal,' he said. 'Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try.' The Trump administration immediately filed a notice of appeal, NBC reported. Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil's travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. Khalil's detention was widely condemned as a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration's assault on speech, which is ostensibly protected by the first amendment to the US constitution. His detention was the first in a series of high-profile arrests of international students who had spoken out about Israel's siege of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian territories and their university's financial ties to companies that profit from Israeli military strikes. Khalil's release marks the latest setback for the Trump administration, which had pledged to deport pro-Palestinian international students en masse, claiming without evidence that speaking out against the Israeli state amounts to antisemitism. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Khalili's case, multiple Jewish students and faculty had submitted court documents in his support. Khalil was a lead negotiator between the Jewish-led, pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia in 2024. And during an appearance on CNN, he said, 'The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' In addition to missing the birth of his son, Khalil was kept from his family's first Mother's Day and Father's Day, and his graduation from Columbia while held in custody from 8 March to 20 June. Trump's crackdown on free speech, pro-Palestinian activists and immigrants has triggered widespread protests and condemnation, as Ice agents ramp up operations to detain tens of thousands of people monthly for deportation while seeking – and in many instances succeeding – to avoid due process. Three other students detained on similar grounds to Khalil – Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi – were previously released while their immigration cases are pending. Others voluntarily left the country after deportation proceedings against them were opened. Another is in hiding as she fights her case. On Sunday, a rally to celebrate Khalil's release – and protest against the ongoing detention by thousands of other immigrants in the US and Palestinians held without trial in Israel – will be held at 5.30pm ET at the steps of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in upper Manhattan. Khalil is expected to address supporters, alongside his legal representatives. 'Mahmoud's release reignites our determination to continue fighting until all our prisoners are released – whether in Palestine or the United States, until we see the end of the genocide and the siege on Gaza, and until we enforce an arms embargo on the Israel,' said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Britain must take on the vile Iranian regime
History rhymes, but rarely repeats itself exactly. The fact that the West failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya does not mean that Britain should now pursue a policy of total disengagement in the Middle East. For the sake of global peace and stability, America and Britain must get involved in the project to strip Iran of its nuclear program and downgrade its offensive missile capabilities. This does not mean boots on the ground, from any Western power, or any direct attack by British forces on Iranian territory. What it does mean is permitting and encouraging the use of the Diego Garcia airbase by US bombers, and assisting with the defence of Israeli airspace against Iranian drones and missiles. It would be greatly in our national interest. Iran is sponsoring terrorist activity against the United Kingdom and its allies, funding Hamas and Hezbollah, arming the Houthi militias that are disrupting world trade, hell-bent on obtaining nuclear weapons, and dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state as a core matter of state doctrine. It is, in other words, difficult to think of an alternative regime which would be worse for Britain's interests in the region, and the chance to deal it a blow at minimal cost to ourselves is one we should leap at. It would also be a deserved punishment for a vile regime. While some appear eager to downplay Tehran's crimes, it should be remembered that the principal victims of the Iranian state are the Iranian people; the women and minorities tortured and disappeared, and those forced to flee for their safety. We should not miss the chance to downgrade the capabilities, particularly through fear of repeating previous errors. What went wrong in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya was not the idea that the West could intervene for the better in a complex region, but the decision in the first two to put boots on the ground, and in Libya to intervene without care as to which force would replace Gadaffi. In Iran, in contrast, the primary objective would be to defang an already maximally destabilising power, decapitating its military leadership, dismantling its nuclear programme, and striking military assets used to bomb Israel and threaten Western bases. Should this prove a catalyst for regime change, this would likely be an improvement: the Iranian people have no great love for their leaders, and may replace them with a government less hostile to the West. Rather than standing in the way of American and Israeli efforts to conduct such an operation, Downing Street should be offering assistance. It would leave Britain in a safer position than the status quo, with our regional interests advanced: a clear strategic victory.
BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil says Trump administration has failed
Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has said the Trump administration failed to suppress pro-Palestinian voices, following his release from more than three months in immigration detention."My existence is a message" to the Trump administration, he told the BBC after returning to New Jersey from a detention centre in Louisiana. "All these attempts to suppress Pro-Palestinian voices have failed now."Mr Khalil was a prominent voice in the New York university's pro-Palestinian protests last year, and his 8 March arrest sparked demonstrations in New York and Washington US government wants to deport him, arguing his activism is detrimental to foreign policy interests.
