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Updated May 5, 2025, at 11:28 p.m.
The United States government will no longer award grants to Harvard, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced in a letter to University President Alan M. Garber ’76 on Monday.
McMahon announced the move — a drastic escalation in an already intense standoff between Harvard and the White House — in a letter she posted to X early Monday evening.
In the three-page letter, McMahon alleged that Harvard had “engaged in a systemic pattern of violating federal law” — citing a flurry of decisions and Harvard affiliates who she accused of refusing to meaningfully address campus issues. She accused the University of flouting the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision overturning its use of race-based affirmative action in admissions.
McMahon’s letter read as a laundry list of Harvard scandals — and right-wing grievances. She cited a new introductory math course, deriding it as “an embarrassing ‘remedial math’ program”; former University President Claudine Gay’s resignation amid plagiarism allegations; and accusations that the Harvard Law Review discriminated against white authors.
“In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor,” she wrote.
The letter comes after the Trump administration pulled $2.2 billion in grants and contracts two weeks ago in response to Garber’s decision to defy the White House’s demands and as it reportedly mulled over another $1 billion cut.
“Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni,” McMahon wrote. “You have an approximately $53 Billion head start.”
The letter cited Harvard’s refusal of the Trump administration’s demands but did not explicitly lay out a path for the University to regain access to federal grants, stating only that “the Administration’s priorities have not changed.” But an Education Department official said Harvard would need to accept the Trump administration’s second — and more aggressive — set of demands for the grant freeze to be lifted.
A Harvard spokesperson slammed McMahon’s directive as retaliation for the University’s lawsuit against the White House last month, calling it the latest attempt to “impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University.”
“Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,” the spokesperson wrote.
The demands include a “merit-based admissions” and hiring process, regular federal audits of Harvard’s programs, and compliance with the Department of Homeland Security.
The freeze will not affect federal financial aid like Pell Grant loans, according to the official.
Staff at the National Institutes of Health were instructed last month to pause grants to Harvard without providing any explanation — and McMahon’s Monday directive now extends that pause across all federal agencies that support research at Harvard. Harvard received $686 million from federal agencies in fiscal year 2024.
McMahon took aim at Harvard’s student body in her letter, writing, “Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country — and why is there so much HATE?” The Trump administration has asked Harvard to turn over records on international students’ participation in protests and to begin screening its international applicants for their political beliefs.
The Monday letter also took an explicitly ideological tone, writing that Harvard had benefited from the American “free-market system you teach your students to despise.” McMahon also blasted Harvard for its association with prominent Democrats, including fellowships granted to former New York mayor Bill de Blasio and former Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot.
She also slammed Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 for contributing to Harvard’s “disastrous management.” She cited comments made earlier Monday by hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman — a vocal Harvard critic — who alleged that under Pritzker’s leadership, the Corporation had put Harvard in “not a good financial position.”
“If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard’s disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform—not continued taxpayer investment,” she wrote.
She concluded her letter with a mockingly upbeat office sign-off: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
