Trump threatens to pull $3B Harvard funding over foreign students records tiff

President Donald Trump has accused Harvard University of being “very slow” to turn over information on foreign students. 

“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 on Truth Social Monday. 

“Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!” Trump wrote. “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!” 

JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT

In a separate post, Trump added Monday, “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!!!” he wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for comment.

Judge Allison D. Burroughs – who was appointed by former President Barack Obama – granted Harvard University a temporary restraining order on Friday, preventing the government from revoking the Ivy League school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S.

In a letter Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard’s leadership that the university had lost its “privilege” of enrolling foreign students as a result of the institution’s “refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security with pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.” 

“This action should not surprise you and is the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements,” Noem wrote. 

Noem said she requested records pertaining to “nonimmigrant students” enrolled at Harvard, “including information regarding misconduct and other offenses that would render foreign students inadmissible or removable,” on April 16. 

Harvard’s counsel responded twice, but both responses were insufficient, according to the letter. 

TRUMP SAYS HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE FROM COUNTRIES PAYING ‘NOTHING’ FOR THEIR EDUCATION

“Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses,” Noem wrote.

The requested records include any and all audio or video footage in Harvard’s possession regarding threats to other students or university personnel, “deprivation of rights” of other classmates or university personnel, and “dangerous or violent activity, whether on or off campus” by a nonimmigrant student enrolled at Harvard in the last five years. Noem is also asking for any and all disciplinary records and audio or video footage of any protest activity involving nonimmigrant students.

The letter gave Harvard another 72 hours to comply and send the requested information in order to regain its certification, but instead, Harvard filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts early Friday. 

In its court filing, Harvard said the revocation impacts more than 7,000 visa holders – more than a quarter of its student body – and “is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.” 

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” the lawsuit says. 

Burroughs set another hearing on the matter for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Boston federal court.