President Donald Trump proposed to boost the trade school and opening up a new dimension in the administration’s escalating battle with Harvard University.
Harvard sues Trump administration over ban on international registration
Harvard is suing the Trump administration in response to the ban on international students.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump continues his second term attack on Harvard University, signaling unexpected potential beneficiaries if he follows American trade schools with the anniversary threat of withdrawing $3 billion in federal grants.
“I’m thinking of stealing a $3 billion grant from the highly anti-Semitic Harvard and handing it over to a trading school across our land,” Trump wrote in the May 26 Social Post of Truth. “What a great investment for America and it was a terrible need!!”
Trump and Harvard have been in conflict since taking office in January, with the Republican president targeting Ivy League school tax-free status, federal funding, international student organizations, and diversity programs.
Harvard has previously endured administration pressure to change employment, enrollment and other practices to align with Trump’s political priorities. Universities and other elite schools face allegations that they failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism.
Part of the administration’s pressure tactics: threaten to take away Harvard’s nonprofit status, freeze $3 billion in federal grant dollars, ban universities from registering international students, and ask Congress to increase university contributions.
Harvard will fight back in court and win a temporary restraining order on May 23, allowing international registration to continue as the case passes through court.
More recently, the administration requested a list of Harvard foreign students. In a second true social post, the president argued that the university protects “radical madmen” by withholding documents.
While the president cannot unilaterally shift federal grants from Harvard from elsewhere (many of which are given for specific project-driven purposes, such as medical research), his remarks about the trade school reflect him, and former Democrat Kamala Harris, who was created on the campaign trail in 2024.
As the entrance flag for four-year colleges, interest continues to grow among young Americans in their occupation and trade programs. The rising costs of university education are calling for other routes for future students to good paying jobs, leading members of both parties and increasing investment in US apprenticeship programs.
