WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is close to reaching a deal with Harvard University, which it has targeted with a series of investigations and billions of dollars in funding cuts as it presses for changes to its policies and governance.
A truce with the country’s oldest and wealthiest college would end a clash that has tested the independence of America’s colleges.
Trump came into office saying he would cut funding for schools that defied his agenda, vowing to eliminate “wokeness.” His pressure campaign zeroed in on the Ivy League institution after it rebuffed his demands.
Trump initially said a deal had been reached but then said officials were “close to finalizing” the agreement. “We haven’t done it yet,” he said at the White House.
Trump said the agreement includes a $500 million payment from Harvard that would be used to create “a giant trade school, a series of trade schools that would be run by Harvard.” Trump described it as an investment to revive trade schools and produce workers for American plants.
“They’re going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things,” Trump said.
Harvard and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A deal would open the door to a resolution of sanctions that have included cuts to more than $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research grants, losses of federal contracts, and efforts to cut off the school’s ability to enroll foreign students.
Trump’s administration has accused Harvard of tolerating antisemitism, particularly during last year’s protests over the Israel-Hamas war. In a letter to Harvard, federal officials said the campus was “overrun by an impermissible, multiweek encampment” that left Jewish and Israeli students fearful and disrupted their studies.
Harvard President Alan Garber has acknowledged problems with antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus, but said Harvard has taken strides to fight prejudice.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston ordered the Trump administration to reverse the cuts to research funding, ruling the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of the administration’s demands. The government had tied the funding freezes to Harvard’s handling of antisemitism allegations, but the judge said the university’s federally backed research had little connection to discrimination against Jews.
Harvard in April became the first university to openly defy the administration’s sweeping demands, sparking an escalating fight with mounting sanctions from the administration.
Even as Harvard fought the White House in court, both sides had been meeting to negotiate a resolution to the impasse. Trump has previously signaled that a deal with Harvard was close only to see weeks pass with no resolution to the standoff.
Some faculty have urged against any deal with the White House, saying it would cede independence to a government that has overstepped its bounds.
The administration previously reached settlement agreements with Columbia and Brown universities to resolve civil rights investigations and restore their federal research funding.
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BY COLLIN BINKLEY
AP Education Writer
