Updated May 2, 2025 at 12:44 PM MDT
On Friday, President Trump again threatened to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status.
"We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!" Trump .
His comments marked the latest volley in a battle between the Trump administration and the wealthiest college in the world.
Trump first suggested revoking the school's nonprofit tax status in April, when he wrote on : "Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting 'Sickness?' "
The administration claims the university has failed to protect Jewish students on campus and had sent it said must be met, or the university would risk losing some $9 billion in federal funding. Harvard's president, saying they were illegal and an intolerable attempt to dictate "what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." In response, the government in federal funding.
Nearly all colleges and universities are tax-exempt organizations. They are given nonprofit status along with charities, religious institutions and some political organizations.
That's part of the reason some elite, U.S. institutions have been able to amass huge endowments. Harvard has the .
But the executive branch from using the Internal Revenue Service to target any particular taxpayer. On Friday, some Democratic lawmakers into whether the administration is pressuring the IRS to revoke Harvard's status.
Harvard has , claiming the government's actions, including freezing some of the university's federal funding, violate and don't follow proper procedure. The will begin this summer.
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