Trump Threatens To Remove Harvard’s Tax-exempt Status

President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, following the Ivy League school’s refusal to implement policy changes demanded by his administration.

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

He added: “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Basically all major colleges and universities are tax-exempt organizations, and the government revoking that status over policy disagreements would be unprecedented. The U.S. tax code also grants exemptions to a wide swath of organizations, including charities, religious institutions — and even some political organizations.

But Republicans have taken aim at the Ivy League through the tax code in the past.

Congress imposed a 1.4 percent tax on high-dollar university endowments, like Harvard's, in 2017 and Republicans may expand the levy in the tax package they are currently assembling.

Trump’s threats follow his administration pulling over $2.2 billion of Harvard’s federal funding in response to the university announcing it would not comply with a list of demands to curb what the White House views as antisemitism on campus.

Educational institutions can lose their tax-exempt status if found to be participating in activities related to political campaigning for or against candidates, or substantial amounts of lobbying by the Internal Revenue Service. There is no public evidence of Harvard violating IRS rules.

Toby Eckert contributed to this report.