Harvard's President Reacts to New Trump Threat: 'Highly Illegal'

MSN NEWSWEEK ^ | 5-3 | Sonam Sheth

[dennisw]

Harvard University's president hit back at President Donald Trump on Friday after Trump announced that he would revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status.

Trump's latest threat to the school comes after Harvard filed a federal lawsuit last month alleging that the administration violated the Ivy League university's constitutional rights by freezing more than $2 billion in federal grants and funding.

What To Know Harvard President Alan Garber told The Wall Street Journal that Trump's decision to revoke the school's tax-exempt status is "highly illegal, unless there is some reasoning that we have not been exposed to that would justify this dramatic move."

"Tax-exempt status is granted to educational institutions to enable them to successfully carry out their mission of education, and for research universities, of research," Garber said.

He continued: "Obviously, that would be severely impaired if we were to lose our tax-exempt status. And I should add, it would be destructive to Harvard, but the message that it sends to the educational community would be a very dire one, which suggests that political disagreements could be used as a basis to pose what might be called an existential threat to so many educational institutions."

[dennisw]

Harvard is a bad actor in many ways. Slamming Harvard for being a tax dodger will play well. Beating up on Harvard is Trump style smart populism.

Harvard better get used to being a frequent flyer for Trump bashing..

[dfwgator]

If churches have access to the same public services as any other business, they should be taxed.

[dennisw]

Harvard is running a (virtually) tax exempt hedge fund. Is this mentioned in the US Constitution?
Or is that hedge fund/endowment using Harvard university to make themselves virtually tax exempt?

[Brian Griffin]

Tiny School District

Keep sending us federal funds even though our black students are being harassed.

Things work for mighty Harvard the same way as with Tiny School District.

“Most notable was the deterioration of the campus climate after the terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Jewish students in general, and those who identify as Zionist in particular, felt that the climate had become less welcoming, even leading some to conceal their religious identity. Feelings of rejection and marginalization were common among Israeli students.”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/04/garber-announces-new-initiatives-to-fight-antisemitism-anti-israeli-bias/

I went to high school with quite a number of Jewish students. I went to college with lots of Jewish students.

I never heard the word “Zionist” spoken even once.

[sloanrb]

Actually, the statement “Render under Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render under God the things that are God’s” not only implies that we should pay taxes, but that there is also a separation between them.

Not in the modern way of the liberal “separation of church and state” mantra, but that there are responsibilities to both. And that government shouldn’t be taxing church donations. Tithes are for churches to do the Lord’s work. That’s why churches have always been tax exempt.

[sloanrb]

Agree with you on that. Many non profits are scams

At the very least there should be salary caps on them. Too many non profit executives have outrageous salaries.

[Mark17]

Otherwise, embrace the suck you filthy cockroaches. /spit

👍👍👍👍👍

[bobbo666]

Quit playing around, DOJ. Go after individual staff of Harvard. The ones who tellstudents to go riot. Other Unis have been successfully sued for letting staff encourage criminal behavior. Not doing so for Harvard reveals how compromised the DOJ is with Harvard scum.

[napscoordinator]

Depends on what the stupid congress passed over the years.

[Bikkuri]

Where is any of this written in the constitution?!

[your other brother]

Here is a news flash for the president of Harvard: Anti-Semitism is illegal. We don’t give tax breaks to the KKK, Nazis, or their fellow travelers like Harvard. Bitch all you want and put a whole herd of legal eagles on the payroll or get them to work for free and you are still going to lose. Jews don’t need to walk around frightened in this country and while Muslims are free to practice their gafucta religion it is not a legal excuse to attack, threaten, or impede people from accessing Harvard yard. If Harvard president can’t figure out how to keep Jews safe on his campus I doubt his faculty can figure much of anything out so giving them research contracts is a waste of taxpayer money.