White House views Harvard’s recent changes as ‘positive’ but says more needs to be done, signals additional funding cuts

By Betsy Klein and Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — The White House characterized recent steps by Harvard University to rectify its apparent mishandling of antisemitism as “positive,” but signaled Wednesday that the university needs to do more to crack down on what it sees as anti-Israel bias on campus for the flow of federal funding to resume — and even suggested more money could be cut.

“What we’re seeing is not enough, and there’s actually probably going to be additional funding being cut. So we’re not having a conversation of what is, you know, releasing the spigot again. We’re not. The spigot is closed. If anything, getting tighter right now,” a White House official told CNN when asked about Harvard’s recent actions.

“But there is an avenue, a very clear avenue, a very real situation in where, you know, they can commit to what we’re asking — reasonable asks. This isn’t something like not reasonable, where we could have a conversation about funding,” they told CNN.

Earlier this month, the federal government’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism froze over $2 billion in federal funding to the Ivy League institution. Harvard sued the Trump administration over the freeze last week.

The administration says its task force, created following a February executive order, is intended to crack down on antisemitism on campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war. But even prominent Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and Harvard’s chapter of the Hillel student organization, have publicly questioned the administration’s broad attacks on the university.

The White House put Harvard grants on hold because the university would not provide the administration with information about alleged “criminal activity” of its students, according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

“We pulled back their grants, because Harvard isn’t responding to us about criminal activity by their students, and until they give us that list, they’re not getting any more grants from Homeland Security,” Gabbard said during a cabinet meeting Wednesday.

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the Trump administration tried to come to the table with Harvard and “their response was a lawsuit,” adding, “but we’re staying tough with them.”

The Trump administration is expected to formally communicate with Harvard again in the coming days.

Earlier this week, Harvard announced it is renaming its “Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging” to “Community and Campus Life.” The university also said it would no longer host or fund affinity group celebrations during commencement, according to The Harvard Crimson. And Tuesday afternoon, the school released a long-awaited pair of lengthy internal reports: one on how antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias are handled on campus, and another on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.

“It’s a positive step in acknowledging the truth and acknowledging that civil rights need to be prioritized,” the White House official said. “By no means is this the final step that they need to take to address all the things that they need to change in their campus. But if this is their way of giving a good faith effort, we’ll be here to monitor and make sure that this is something that’s followed through on.”

The official suggested that the administration would be watching to see if there’s anything meaningful to the name change: “DEI by another name that’s still DEI – that’s not going to fly.”

But the administration believes the university is coming around to the idea that it needs to work with President Donald Trump.

“Harvard realizes that while they want to play hardball, it is in their best interest to work with the president of the United States and the administration, and I think this is their way of indicating that they’re blinking – and that they will reluctantly come to the table for the sake of the future of their university,” the official said.

CNN has reached out to Harvard University for comment.

The official also dismissed findings in the Harvard report on concerns about anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.

The report found that Muslim, Arab and Palestinian faculty and students at Harvard overwhelmingly reported feeling “abandoned” and “actively silenced” as they voiced concerns over the mounting death toll and unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

CNN reported that across nearly every area of concern, Jewish students reported greater levels of discomfort and alienation than Christian, atheist and agnostic students, but lower levels than their Muslim peers, according to the antisemitism report.

The-CNN-Wire
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