Trump Drops the Big One on Harvard, Asks IRS to Revoke Their Tax-Exempt Status
“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 ongoing battle between President Trump and Harvard just got a lot more interesting. Now that the school has openly defied the Trump administration’s demands, he has asked the IRS to investigate the possibility of revoking its tax-exempt status.
This would have massive repercussions for Harvard and send a shockwave throughout American higher education.
USA Today reports:
Following Trump threats, IRS may revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, reports say
The IRS may revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status after the Ivy League university refused to meet President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging demands for changes in its policies, CNN and the Washington Post reported on April 16.
According to the Post, the Trump administration asked the IRS to revoke the Cambridge, Massachusetts university’s tax-exempt status. CNN reported that the agency is making plans to do so.
Trump and Harvard are battling over his allegations the university failed to adequately protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests last year, along with his belief the university is a bastion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Republicans have for several years been discussing whether to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard and other universities they deem “woke” for DEI policies while permitting anti-Israel protests.
“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?'” Trump posted to Truth Social on April 15. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
Do not think that this couldn’t happen.
We're done playing games. Harvard is violating the Civil Rights Act and, following Supreme Court precedent, should lose its tax-exempt status. Zero tolerance for DEI. pic.twitter.com/lUYsHhOJe3
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 16, 2025
🚨 #BREAKING: President Trump and the DOJ have officially asked the IRS to REVOKE Harvard University's tax exempt status
This will cost the woke college BILLIONS of dollars per year.
GOOD! That indoctrination camp doesn't deserve a single dollar from taxpayers.
Trump has… pic.twitter.com/OPg8nW9cDW
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 16, 2025
In an almost equally serious related matter, the Department of Homeland Security just told Harvard that if it doesn’t comply, it could lose its ability to enroll foreign students.
Reuters reports:
Trump administration says Harvard may lose ability to enroll foreign students
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Harvard University will lose its ability to enroll foreign students if it does not meet demands from the Trump administration to share information on some visa holders, marking the government’s latest escalation against the educational institution.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also announced on Wednesday the termination of two DHS grants totaling more than $2.7 million to Harvard.
Noem said she wrote a letter to Harvard demanding records on what she called the “illegal and violent activities” of Harvard’s foreign student visa holders by April 30.
“And if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” Noem said in a statement.
Millions of Americans have absolutely had it with this:
Let's not forget this:
Last year, Harvard students replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag.
This was the exact moment when U.S. tax dollars should have stopped flowing to the university. pic.twitter.com/O85ybQlqJr
— Christian Collins (@CollinsforTX) April 15, 2025
Harvard is going to make changes or changes will be made for them.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Ask Harvard if they remember Bob Jones University.
Yes but right leaning universities are held to a different standard, left can do as they please and encourage destruction and murder.. not a problem
Exactly.
Bob Jones uni lost its TE status on the grounds that since it violated anti-discrimination law and refused to stop it didn’t qualify as deserving of TE status from “serving the public good”.
Harvard (and any other TE uni) has a duty to obey anti-discrimination law and not violate it to keep its TE status. It’s already under fire for failing that duty in its discriminatory admissions. Now it’s also failing that duty in protecting Jewish students and workers from harassment and full blown violence. Harvard doesn’t allow and encourage illegal encampments and block access to facilities and death threats for gays – or blacks – or Hispanics. It does for Jews. It’s definitely NOT “in the public interest” to have live reenactments of Krystal Nacht on American campuses.
Agreed. But Bob Jones isn’t a real university. It has a 90 percent acceptance rating. It is a diploma mill for fundamentalist Christians, which is fine, But there is no serious research or teaching being done there. A degree from Bob Jones University is about as impressive as a degree from the now defunct Trump University.
Degree from Harvard is going that same direction.
It’s been that way for the last 5 years. All the Ivy’s have.
And you’re not a real commentator. You have a 90 percent disapproval rating. You’re a TDS ranter which is tiresome. There is no serious thought on your part. A down click from you is not impressive, nor are the up clicks you reward yourself.
I don’t believe the extent of research determines a university’s legal obligations.
I was about to bring that up. They aren’t any better – actually they are worse – Bob Jones U had no animus, just certain beliefs.
Great point! Another way the government previously has discouraged illegal racial discrimination by colleges and universities is by denying federally supported financial aid to students attending schools that engage in such discrimination. That approach would break the back of all but the wealthiest schools that maintain DEI-inspired practices. I suspect it would put substantial financial pressure even on Harvard.
Yes! Love it! Burn the progressive bastards to the ground and teach them they are neither untouchable elites nor above the law.
Hang ’em High!
How high?
50 cubits, of course. (See the book of Esther.)
Noah: Right … What’s a cubit? (See Bill Cosby Noah routine)
A – Under the doctrine established by the SC in Bob Jones University v IRS, Harvard should lose their 503(c)(3) exemption
B- It is entirely inappropriate for Trump to initiate the action of revoking their tax exempt statuts.
C – separate policy argument is whether an organization as large as Harvard with the huge endowment and other funds is deserving of tax exempt status
Not at all inappropriate. It’s an executive branch accident and he’s the executive.
Whatever. Federal District Court Judge will simply issue a TRO or injunction against the IRS from revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status and then it will be slow walked through the courts until Trump is out of office and the whole thing will be dropped by the next presidential administration. Guaranteed.
The IRS action still must be done. We cannot govern in perpetual fear of federal courts and the predictably obnoxious and lawless judicial overreach and assorted partisan antics practiced by Dhimmi-crat activist-legislators masquerading as “judges.”
Conservatives should never cower and shy away from doing what is fair and right, just because of anticipated and predictably partisan antics mounted in reprisal, from the federal courts.
Exactly. So what if some Leftist activist judge will issue a TRO to block it? Take the action and make them block it!
Not taking the action is conceding defeat before even trying. A TRO isn’t the end; it’s a “hold pattern” order until a hearing is held to decide the matter. The administration might win at the hearing or they might lose, but they will lose every time if they don’t try.
As the saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
And if nothing else, it makes the activist judges out themselves. They can’t slink along unknown in the judiciary shadows if they have to sign their names on these TROs.
Never said they shouldn’t do what needs to be done. Just that the federal judicial system is largely stacked against us due to the fact that Biden appointed 235+ article III federal judges during his regime and I’d imagine all of them are tried and true democrats with an eye to keeping the liberal democrat agenda alive and well. So yeah, take action but don’t expect much from our alleged unbiased federal judicial system.
The fact, Lucifer, that the odds are very high that evil will never be defeated does not release us from the obligation to try.
Never said we shouldn’t take action. Just that we shouldn’t expect much from our alleged unbiased federal judicial system that’s been loaded with liberal democrat leaning justices during the Biden regime.
fwiw – A federal district court judge stepping in to issue any ruling before the IRS moves to revoke the 501(c)(3) exemption is egregious behavior on part any district court.
Not that they won’t do it. They don’t care about being egregious
fwiw – when has that ever stopped the biased federal district court system from doing just that. Especially if it will benefit the democrats.
IANAL, but my understanding is a TRO can’t be slow-walked. It will get a hearing on the emergency docket, usually within 7-14 days. (The ‘T’ is for “Temporary”.)
At that hearing, both sides will present their cases and the court will decide based on the Winter factors whether a Preliminary Injunction is in order. The results of that hearing — PI or no PI — can be appealed and slow-walked, but either way, the TRO expires and is moot.
In this case, though, it seems the law might be on Trump’s side, and it’s at that PI hearing where they’ll make the best case for themselves. It will be interesting to see what mental gymnastics the activist judges use to contort law and logic to justify a TRO or PI.
Harvard’s been *begging* for this for a long time. Thanks for giving it to them Mr. President.
AND: That Maine governor should be indicted for treason. An example needs to be made of her. Then we should all throw a party! We’ve ALL suffered under the insane power of the demonrats and the steaming media far too long.
What I’d like to know is why a private educational institution like Harvard that has a billion dollar endowment and charges $86,926 per year per full-time student is doing with tax-exempt status in the first place.
As stated above, that is a policy argument worth addressing.
Remember: Trump does outrageous things to shine a light for people to see.
This debate isn’t about Harvard, per se. This is about a much larger issue of public funds going to private academic organizations which, in turn, violate laws and foment terrorism. In as much, this runs parallel to disbanding the DOE.
Higher education has been a very expensive scam for a long time. Biden recognized this and tried to cancel student loan debt in return for votes. That is a stupid way to go about fixing the problem (then again, what about Joe Biden isn’t stupid?).
I see Trump as trying to undo this gordian knot on a much larger scale.
Am I right? We’ll have to wait and see.
You can tell how worried progressives are about this by the number of articles in the media the last couple days dismissing the comparisons of Bob Jones University to what Harvard has done. Personally, I think the behavior of both schools is remarkably similar in many ways. Progressives opened this door by stripping Bob Jones University tax exemption for its political positions. Their chickens are coming home to roost.
Bob Jones U had no animus. just strange beliefs. Harvard is much worse.
I agree with Peter Moss (above), although I’m not sure Trump is doing the 4-D chess moves here. Could be. If so, applause.
Trump’s tiff with Harvard seems, to stretch a point, analogous to a bill of attainder. There’s too much quid pro quo here. If Harvard plays ball, then their tax exempt status remains. Universities are very different creatures now from what they were 100 years ago. NO university should be tax exempt. Let the incoming students pay the taxes. If that becomes too onerous, maybe some staff should get a pay cut.
Going after one university is pointless. Go after them all.
Trump keeps missing the big picture. No university should get taxpayer funding to do their largely worthless research. And no university should be tax exempt. Forget about what they teach or believe. They will lie to get the money. You can’t change what they think or how they think.
Also, going after one university?
IMO this action to strip tax exempt status based on Harvard’s repeated failures to adhere to their obligations under Civil Rights Act and under the clear precedent of Bob Jones is entirely appropriate. FWIW Harvard is not ‘one’ Univ… it is THE University and issuing corrective action on Harvard will serve notice on every other University to stop dicking around. Rumsfeld v FAIR also serves to buttress the case in that this is exactly the same sort of situation where a Univ is failing to meet an obligation to DO or refrain from DOing something, not based on their speech or other 1A activity. The staff, faculty,.admin and students can feel free (the US.Citizens anyway) to speak up, write columns, pen pamphlets, author books, publish articles or gather for lawful protests ….but they can’t engage in Civil Rights violations of other people via DEI/CRT policies in admissions or hiring nor can the Univ fail to exert itself to ensure safety, security and freedom from constant harassment and credible fear.
The point is that the other institutions are looking to Harvard as to what to to do. Regarding the general concept ,that would take congressional action.
if we got rid of the income tax then there would be no more exemptions..to the taxes and no more favoritism aka socialism
Harvard is changing its motto from VERITAS to VITIOSUS.
Trump is doing in the open what Obama did in the shadows. I don’t love it, but it’s better than what the IRS did for Dems last season and 2 seasons before that.