Trump demands $1 billion from Harvard as a prolonged standoff appears to
deepen
[February 04, 2026]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is demanding a $1 billion
payment from Harvard University to end his prolonged standoff with the
Ivy League campus, doubling the amount he sought previously as both
sides appear to move further from reaching a deal.
The president raised the stakes on social media Monday night, saying
Harvard has been “behaving very badly.” He said the university must pay
the government directly as part of any deal — something Harvard has
opposed — and that his administration wants “nothing further to do” with
Harvard in the future.
Trump’s comments on Truth Social came in response to a New York Times
report saying the president had dropped his demand for a financial
payment, lowering the bar for a deal. Trump denied he was backing down.
Harvard officials did not immediately comment.
Trump’s outburst appears to leave both sides firmly entrenched in a
conflict that Trump previously said was nearing an end.
Last June, Trump said a deal was just days away and that Harvard had
acted “extremely appropriately” during negotiations. He later said an
agreement was being finalized that would require Harvard to put $500
million toward the creation of a “series of trade schools” rather than a
payment to the government.
That deal appears to have fallen apart entirely. In his social media
post, Trump said the trade school proposal had been turned down because
it was “convoluted” and “wholly inadequate.”
Harvard has long been Trump’s top target in his administration’s
campaign to bring the nation’s most prestigious universities to heel.
His officials have cut billions of dollars in Harvard’s federal research
funding and attempted to block it from enrolling foreign students after
the campus rebuffed a series of government demands last April.
The White House has said it’s punishing Harvard for tolerating
anti-Jewish bias on campus.
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People take photos near a John Harvard statue, left, on the Harvard
University campus, Jan. 2, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. r. (AP
Photo/Steven Senne, File)
In a pair of lawsuits, Harvard said it’s being unfairly penalized
for refusing to adopt the administration’s views. A federal judge
agreed in December, reversing the funding cuts and calling the
antisemitism argument a “smokescreen.”
Trump’s latest escalation comes as other parts of his higher
education campaign are teetering.
Last fall, the White House invited nine universities to join a
“compact” that offered funding priority in exchange for adopting
Trump’s agenda. None of the schools accepted. In January, the
administration abandoned its legal defense of an Education
Department document threatening to cut schools’ funding over
diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
When he took office for his second term, Trump made it a priority to
go after elite universities that he said had been overrun by liberal
thinking and anti-Jewish bias. His officials have frozen huge sums
of research funding, which colleges have come to rely on for
scientific and medical research.
Several universities have reached agreements with the White House to
restore funding. Some deals have included direct payments to the
government, including $200 million from Columbia University. Brown
University agreed to pay $50 million toward state workforce
development groups.
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