Harvard agreed to deal to restore federal funds, Trump says

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Harvard University has agreed to a deal to restore billions of dollars in federal funds that were frozen after the administration accused the Ivy League school of discriminating against Jews.

Speaking at an Oval Office event about childhood cancer, Trump said that all that was left to complete the deal was to “paper it.”

“I guess we reached a deal with Harvard today,” Trump said. “Paper it out. It’ll be great though. It’s going to have to do with something that’s very important to everybody.” (JNS sought comment from Harvard and the White House.)

In April, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts with Harvard, saying that the “harassment of Jewish students” on campus “is intolerable.”

“It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support,” the federal Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism stated at the time.

On Tuesday, Trump said that the forthcoming deal with Harvard would include a $500 million fund for vocational education.

“They’ll be paying about $500 million, and they’ll be operating trade schools. They’re going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things—engines—lots of things,” Trump said.

“This would be a giant series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard. This is something that we’re close to finalizing—we haven’t done it yet—but they’ve put up $500 million,” he said. “And then their sins are forgiven.”

© JNS