Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Defense plans to cut its academic relationship with Harvard University in yet another effort by the Trump administration to inflict pain on the Ivy League institution.
- The department said it will discontinue fellowships, certificate programs and graduate-level professional military education for active duty military members at Harvard beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. It will allow current students to complete their studies.
- In a social media post about the decision Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not.” The department signaled that it would review similar relationships within two weeks with other U.S. colleges, including other Ivy League institutions.
Dive Insight:
Amid the unprecedented blitz against higher education in the past year, the Trump administration’s attacks on Harvard have stood out as uniquely intense and frequent.
The latest salvo disrupts a long-standing educational partnership between the Defense Department and the university. In a video statement on the decision, Hegseth said more recipients of the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration, attended Harvard than any other civilian institution. The government's relationship with Harvard stretches back to the Revolutionary War era.
Today, along with educating military leaders, Harvard conducts research for the Defense Department. Between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, Harvard received about $300 million in total funding from the Pentagon, more than from any other federal agency except the National Institutes of Health, which provided over $400 million annually to Harvard during that period.
Neither the department nor Hegseth mentioned Harvard’s research funding specifically, and a Defense Department spokesperson declined to comment on whether Pentagon research funding to Harvard was at risk as well.
Harvard did not respond by publication time to a request for comment on the Defense Department’s announcement.
In cutting ties, Hegseth and the department rattled off a list of now-familiar litany of accusations and ideological complaints from the Trump administration about Harvard, including its research ties to China, allegations that it allowed antisemitism to run rampant on its campus, and its diversity and inclusion efforts. and that it promoted what Hegseth also called Harvard a center for “hate-America activism.”
“For too long this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said in his video. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”
Since last spring, the Trump administration has pursued Harvard with a seemingly obsessive persistence.
In April, the government froze $2.2 billion in research funding to Harvard after it rebuffed the administration’s sweeping demands to settle allegations that the university didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. A federal judge struck down the freeze in September.
The administration also revoked the university’s ability to enroll foreign students in May. A federal judge blocked that move just a day afterward.
Despite the legal setbacks, the Trump administration has also threatened Harvard’s patent revenue, accreditation, tax-exempt status and ability to draw federal student aid.
President Donald Trump said last September that the government and university were nearing a deal, though no agreement has materialized so far. Last week, Trump said on his social media platform that his administration was now seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard for what he described as “serious and heinous illegalities.” Trump also seemed to suggest the government should investigate Harvard on criminal charges.
