Trump administration moves to cancel federal contracts with Harvard worth about $100 million
WASHINGTON -- The federal government is poised to direct its agencies to move to cancel contracts totaling about $100 million with Harvard University, two senior Trump administration officials told CNN, the latest barb against the school as it refuses to bend to the White House's barrage of policy demands amid a broader politically charged assault on US colleges.
The latest Harvard directive will be delivered Tuesday in a letter that also will order government agencies to look for new vendors for the federal funds, the officials said. The General Services Administration "will send a letter to federal agencies today asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be canceled or redirected elsewhere," one official told CNN.
The New York Times first reported the planned cuts. They come on top of $2.65 billion in recent federal cuts to Harvard.
CNN has reached out to lawyers for Harvard, which in recent weeks has borne the bulk of the White House's ire against institutions it believes embody a liberal woke front.
The university near Boston broadly has refused many government demands, including that it hand over foreign students' entire conduct records and allow audits to confirm it has expanded "viewpoint diversity" on campus.
"The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," Harvard President Alan Garber wrote last month.
The nation's oldest and wealthiest university sued the Trump administration last month over its freeze of $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts and since then has halted another $450 million to Harvard.
The Trump administration last week canceled Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students, a move that's subject to a status conference Tuesday after a federal judge put it on hold. The school has argued revocation of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was "clear retaliation" for its refusal of the government's ideologically rooted policy demands.
Trump further has threatened to cut off $3 billion more in Harvard's federal grant funding and pull its tax-exempt status.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
