President Donald Trump said he would be eliminating Harvard University‘s tax-exempt status.
The Ivy League institution has come under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration over its handling of anti-Israel protests and claims it has failed to curb antisemitism on campus. The president has teased revoking the university’s tax-exempt status for a while, but he said he would do it definitively in a Truth Social post Friday morning.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump said.
Harvard is tax-exempt because it falls under the IRS qualifications of “charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals” — purposes that may be eligible for tax exemptions.
While Trump has said the university’s tax-exempt status will be revoked, a section of IRS tax code forbids direct requests from the president or other officers of the executive branch. Legal experts have also expressed doubt that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status, but they said they believed the university could see federal grants and funds halted.
With its tax-exempt status, Harvard has been able to amass an endowment of over $50 billion.
WHY DOES HARVARD HAVE TAX-EXEMPT STATUS, AND CAN TRUMP’S IRS REVOKE IT?
Trump’s announcement on Truth Social came after he addressed the University of Alabama’s commencement on Thursday evening and predicted that those graduates, rather than Harvard graduates, would write the future.
“Congratulations to the Alabama class of 2025, standing here before you in this magnificent arena. It is clear to see the next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson. It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide,” Trump said. “They get their $5 billion a year. That is not going to be so forthcoming.”