Trump: Harvard Grant Money Could Go to Trade Schools

President Donald Trump threatened to redirect $3 billion in federal grants, originally targeted for Harvard, to U.S. trade schools.

Trump's comments on his social media platform come less than a week after his administration sought to block the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students.

A judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students, a move that ratcheted up White House efforts to conform practices in academia to Trump's policies.

The president and his administration have withheld federal funding to schools due to their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and on-campus anti-Israel protests.

"I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!" Trump posted Monday morning on Truth Social.

A few minutes later, Trump wrote that Harvard has not supplied his administration with foreign student lists.

"We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country," Trump wrote.

"Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason! The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!"

Trump has frozen some $3 billion in federal grants to Harvard in recent weeks, complaining that it has hired Democrats, "Radical Left idiots and 'bird brains'" as professors. Harvard, a private university, has sued to restore the funding, saying the cuts are an unconstitutional attack on its free speech rights and unlawful.

Most of that grant money is appropriated by Congress for the National Institutes of Health to disburse to fund biomedical research after a lengthy application process by individual scientists, work that is not typically done at trade schools.

It was not clear whether Trump was referring to Harvard grants his administration has already frozen. Harvard has said it was told that virtually all of its federal grant awards were revoked earlier in May, in a series of letters by the NIH, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and other agencies.

The letters each said the grants were being suspended because they "no longer effectuate agency priorities."

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. The White House did not respond to questions about the specific funds Trump wants to repurpose or how it could be reallocated to trade schools under the law.

The judge's Friday order provides temporary relief to thousands of international students, who were faced with potentially having to transfer under a policy that the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts called a "blatant violation" of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws.

It said the move would have an "immediate and devastating effect" on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.

Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, representing 27% of total enrollment and a significant chunk of its revenue from tuition fees.

The move was the latest escalation in a broader battle between Harvard and the White House, as Trump seeks to compel universities, law firms, news media, courts and other institutions to align with his agenda. Trump and fellow Republicans have long accused elite universities of left-wing bias.

In recent weeks, the administration has proposed ending Harvard's tax-exempt status and hiking taxes on its endowment, and opened an investigation into whether it violated civil rights laws by discriminating against "white, Asian, male, or straight employees" or job or training program applicants.

Harvard has said its hiring and admissions are compliant with the law.

Reuters contributed to this story.