Trump Seeks Apology From Harvard: All You Need To Know

The President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, threatened that he would strip Harvard of its tax exempt status on Tuesday and said that the university should apologize, a day after it rejected 'unlawful' demands to overhaul academic programs or lose federal grants.

Trump's Crusade 

Starting with Columbia University, the Trump administration has reprimanded several universities throughout the country over the issue of handling of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that was spread across several campuses following the Hamas-led attack inside Israel and subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza.

According to Trump, these protests are anti-American and antisemitic, and he accuses universities of peddling Marxism and "radical left" ideology, and promised to end federal grants as well as contracts to universities that do not agree with his demands.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said that he was thinking whether to seek to end Harvard's tax-exempt status if it continued pushing "political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/ supporting 'Sickness?'"

While Trump did not specify how he would do this, under the US tax code, most universities are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be "operated exclusively" for public educational purposes.

The US President wanted to see Harvard apologize for antisemitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students.

Columbia University has agreed to negotiations over the demands to tighten its protest rules after the Trump administration terminated grants and contracts worth $400 million, primarily for medical and scientific research.

What Did Harvard Do?

The President of Harvard University Alan Garber in a letter on Monday said that the demands that the Trump administration had made of the Massachusetts university, including an audit to ensure the "viewpoint diversity" of its students and faculty and an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs were unprecedented "assertions of power, unmoored from the law" that violated constitutional free speech and the Civil rights Act.

he added that just like Columbia, Harvard had to fight antisemitism and other prejudice on its campus while preserving academic freedom as well as the right to protest.

Trump's Response

Hours after this, Trump administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said it was freezing more than $2 billion in contracts and grants to Harvard, which is the oldest and richest university of the US.  

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