‘Mindbogglingly HISTORIC’: Trump says deal with Harvard possible ‘over the next week or so’

BOSTON – US President Donald Trump said on June 20 that his administration has been working with Harvard University and could announce a deal “over the next week or so” to resolve the White House’s campaign against the country’s oldest and richest university.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he raised the prospect of a deal with the Ivy League school, which has sued the federal government after his administration terminated billions of dollars in grants awarded to Harvard and moved to bar the school from admitting international students.

The Republican president’s administration has said its actions against Harvard are justified based on a litany of allegations, including that the school was not doing enough to combat anti-Semitic harassment on campus.

Mr Trump said his administration is addressing “improprieties” at Harvard. He said individuals at Harvard “have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right”.

“If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country,” he wrote.

He made the statement shortly after a federal judge in Boston issued an injunction blocking the US Department of Homeland Security from immediately revoking Harvard’s ability to enrol international students.

That injunction prevents the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Programme without first going through a months-long administrative process, which it now plans to do.

Harvard had no immediate comment on Mr Trump’s post, but in a statement, it welcomed US District Judge Allison Burroughs’ order, adding it “will continue to defend its rights – and the rights of its students and scholars”.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard has filed two lawsuits seeking to unfreeze around US$2.5 billion (S$3.22 billion) in funding and to prevent the administration from blocking the ability of international students to attend the university.

Harvard alleges that Mr Trump has been retaliating against it, violating its free speech rights under the US Constitution’s First Amendment because it refused to accede to the administration’s demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.

Judge Burroughs is expected to rule in the coming days on Harvard’s related request that she continue blocking implementation of a proclamation that Mr Trump signed barring foreign nationals from entering the US to study at the university.

International students comprise about a quarter of its student body. REUTERS