US President Donald Trump has said he wants to claim $1 billion in “damages” from Harvard University, intensifying his long-running confrontation with the Ivy League institution. His remarks came after a report by The New York Times suggested that his administration had withdrawn an earlier demand for $200 million over alleged wrongdoing by the university.
Posting on his Truth Social platform late on Monday night, Trump said, “This case will continue until justice is served,” and accused Harvard of spreading misinformation through what he called the “failing New York Times”.
No clarity on legal basis
Trump did not explain the legal grounds under which he would seek the $1 billion. Harvard University did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his latest claims, Bloomberg reported.
Earlier on Monday, The New York Times reported that administration officials had dropped the $200 million demand “amid sagging approval ratings for Trump, and as he faces outrage over immigration enforcement tactics and the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents in Minnesota.”
In a follow-up post after midnight on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the newspaper’s report, calling it “completely wrong”, and demanded that it be corrected.
He also claimed that Harvard had been “feeding a lot of ‘nonsense’” to the newspaper, further sharpening his criticism of both the university and the media outlet.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has taken a hard line against Harvard and several other universities. His administration has accused them of allowing antisemitism, particularly in connection with campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Conservative groups have long argued that US universities marginalise right-wing voices and ideas, claiming that academia is dominated by a liberal establishment.
Harvard has pushed back through the courts, filing two lawsuits against the federal government. In September, it secured a key legal victory when a federal judge ruled that the US had illegally halted research funding. The judge said the administration had “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
While the administration said it would appeal the ruling, most of the frozen research funds were later restored.
Unlike some other Ivy League institutions, including Columbia and Brown, Harvard has not reached a settlement with the White House.
In December, Harvard announced that its president, Alan Garber, would remain in his role beyond mid-2027. The university said he had agreed to stay on for “an indefinite time beyond” that date, extending his tenure at the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States.
