Trump says administration is nearing $500M deal with Harvard: 'They'll be operating trade schools'
President Donald Trump says his administration is closing in on a deal with the elite Ivy League institution.
The deal would follow multimillion-dollar settlements from other universities, including Columbia and Brown.
Harvard University is preparing to pay $500 million as part of a deal with the federal government, according to President Donald Trump. If the president’s details are accurate, this would mark one of the largest settlements yet in the White House’s ongoing crackdown on elite universities.
”We’re in the process of getting very close and [Secretary of Education Linda McMahon] is finishing up the final details,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office.
”They’d be paying about $500 million and they’ll be operating trade schools.”
The settlement follows months of tension between Harvard and the administration, which accused the Ivy League school of tolerating anti-Semitism during pro-Palestinian protests and mismanaging its diversity and transgender policies.
Federal officials froze billions in research funding, threatened Harvard’s accreditation, and moved to block international students from attending.
Harvard pushed back in court, winning temporary relief from some of the administration’s actions. But university leaders admitted the standoff risked stripping nearly $1 billion annually from Harvard’s budget.
The Department of Health and Human Services had even begun a process that could have barred Harvard from all federal contracts.
Trump said the deal would have Harvard providing education on subjects such as artificial intelligence and engine work.
”When I went to school we had some people that weren’t particularly good students but they could take an engine apart blindfolded and put it back blindfolded,” Trump said. “But they weren’t too good at other things, and many of them ended up doing better than people that were.”
Trump said the new initiatives would provide skilled, top-level workers for new automobile plants and the AI industry.
The deal would make Harvard the latest elite school to cut an agreement with the Trump administration. Columbia University has already agreed to pay $220 million, while Brown committed $50 million for workforce development programs.
