Trump To Cut Another $1 Billion From Harvard Health Research Funding, Wall Street Journal Reports

The Trump administration plans to slash another $1 billion in federal grants and contracts for health research to Harvard, on top of an existing $2.2 billion cut, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The new cut comes after Garber decided to publicly reject the revised — and more aggressive — set of demands that the White House issued to Harvard last Friday as part of his message to Harvard affiliates on Monday. Garber’s rejection sparked the federal government’s first funding freeze.

Citing the two anonymous sources, the Journal reported that the Trump administration saw the release as a breach of a confidential negotiation process.

Harvard had not agreed to keep the demands private, according to the Journal, but its public release is now being touted by some in the White House as a reason to take a more aggressive approach to Harvard’s funding.

A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the plans for a new funding cut.

Harvard had first been issued a set of demands on April 3, but they carried little detail of what changes the White House seeked to let the University maintain its federal funding. The Trump administration sent a second set of demands on April 11, which introduced a series of new demands — including reporting international students to federal agencies if they violated Harvard’s conduct policies — and expanded on existing ones.

The federal antisemitism task force had thought that Harvard would concede to the demands sent on April 3, according to the Journal.

The announcement comes just two days after the New York Times reported that the Friday demands had been sent erroneously and without approval. The White House stood by the demands.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.