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Updated September 30, 2025, at 9:37 p.m.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday in the Oval Office that the White House had “reached a deal” with Harvard, before cautioning that the agreement had not been finalized.
“All you have to do is paper it, right” Trump asked Education Secretary Linda E. McMahon, who concurred. “It’ll be great.”
When a reporter asked for more information on the details of the deal, Trump seemed to back up, saying an agreement was not yet finalized.
“We’re in the process of getting very close, Linda’s finishing up the final details, and they’d be paying about $500 million,” Trump said.
“And they’ll be operating trade schools, and they’ll be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things. Engines, lots of things,” he added.
A Harvard spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The unexpected announcement comes after talks between the White House and Harvard stalled in recent weeks, following a judge’s ruling against the Trump administration’s block on $2.7 billion in federal grants and contracts to the University. Harvard was still facing a slew of federal investigations, and the administration has continued to levy new threats against the University’s access to federal funding since the judge’s order.
Trump said reaching a deal would mean that Harvard’s “sins are forgiven.”
Under the agreement, he said, a series of trade schools would be “run by Harvard.”
“They’ve put up $500 million interest and everything else would go to that account — meaning it would go to the trade school,” he said. “It’s a big investment in trade school done by very smart people.”
The agreement described by Trump loosely mirrors the administration’s earlier settlement with Brown University, where the school agreed to pay $50 million to support workforce development in Rhode Island. Under that agreement, Brown did not pledge to directly “run” trade schools.
At the time of his remarks, Trump was signing an unrelated executive order aimed at advancing pediatric cancer research and tapping into “the extraordinary potential” of artificial intelligence.
He pivoted to Harvard when introducing remarks by McMahon and then again after a reporter asked him about the status of the settlement talks, which were first announced by Trump himself in June.
Trump’s remarks come as the Trump administration has turned up the pressure on Harvard. On Monday, the White House launched federal suspension and debarment proceedings against the University, a highly unusual move that would cut off the school from access to federal grants and contracts.
As recently as Sunday, Harvard’s top leaders had offered little clarity on whether a settlement existed — or, if it did, on its status or terms.
When asked by a Crimson reporter while leaving a meeting of the University’s governing bodies, Harvard Corporation chair Penny Pritzker responded that she had “absolutely no idea” how the negotiations might conclude.
Pritzker also expressed skepticism about Harvard’s willingness to agree to a settlement involving a $500 million payout.
“I’ve heard the Trump administration say that,” she remarked when pressed about the figure.
Meanwhile, Harvard Provost John F. Manning ’82 declined to answer questions regarding the talks when approached, offering only a tight smile.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the White House has been on the verge of a deal with Harvard.
When he first broke the news that talks had resumed between the two parties in June, he claimed that a deal was coming “in the next week or so.” More than three months passed without signs of a finished deal.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.
—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.
