In mid‑April 2025, the Department of Education notified Harvard that nearly $2.3 billion in federal research grants would be frozen unless the university acceded to a set of new policy demands the White House had issued—demands Harvard characterized as an “illegal overreach” of executive power.<br /><br />At the same time, President Trump publicly urged the IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax‑exempt status, further escalating the dispute over institutional autonomy.
