Trump Admin Urges IRS to Revoke Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status
The Trump administration is seeking to have the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status.
According to a report by The Washington Post, three sources have confirmed that the administration has requested the IRS to implement this change. While there has been no official confirmation that the IRS has acted on the request, the report states that the Treasury Secretary asked IRS Acting Chief Counsel Andrew De Mello to pursue the revocation. The move comes amid the ongoing clash between the Trump administration and Ivy League institutions over campus policies and continuing protests.
President Donald Trump addressed the issue on social media Tuesday, writing, “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?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
White House spokesman Harrison Fields responded to the news by saying, “Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the president, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the president’s TRUTH.”
The administration’s actions follow earlier efforts in Congress. Last year, Congressman Jason T. Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called for a review of the tax-exempt status of Harvard, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT after they failed to adequately respond to the federal government’s inquiries regarding antisemitism on their campuses.
This latest push comes as the Department of Education announced this week it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants to Harvard University. The freeze was enacted after the school declined to comply with administration demands to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and take more aggressive steps to combat antisemitism.
A joint letter from the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services informed the university that, “By August 2025, the University must adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” and added that admissions policies must follow the same principles. The letter further instructed the university to “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism.”
Harvard President Alan Garber issued a response stating, “We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement.”
