Updated May 2, 2025 at 1:44 PM CDT
On Friday, President Trump again threatened to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status.
"We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
His comments marked the latest volley in a battle between the Trump administration and the wealthiest college in the world.
Trump first suggested revoking the school's nonprofit tax status in April, when he wrote on Truth Social: "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?' "
The administration claims the university has failed to protect Jewish students on campus and had sent Harvard a list of demands it said must be met, or the university would risk losing some $9 billion in federal funding. Harvard's president rejected the administration's demands, saying they were illegal and an intolerable attempt to dictate "what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." In response, the government froze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding.
Nearly all colleges and universities are tax-exempt organizations. They are given nonprofit status along with charities, religious institutions and some political organizations.
That's part of the reason some elite, U.S. institutions have been able to amass huge endowments. Harvard has the largest, at more than $50 billion.
But the law bars the executive branch from using the Internal Revenue Service to target any particular taxpayer. On Friday, some Democratic lawmakers requested an investigation into whether the administration is pressuring the IRS to revoke Harvard's status.
Harvard has sued the Trump administration, claiming the government's actions, including freezing some of the university's federal funding, violate the First Amendment and don't follow proper procedure. The expedited trial will begin this summer.
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