Democrats have urged the IRS internal watchdog to probe whether Trump targeting Harvard’s tax-exempt status is illegal.
On Friday, President Donald Trump announced that he intends to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, despite the university’s recent moves to comply with many of the administration’s demands.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
In response, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and three other Democratic senators have demanded that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) internal watchdog investigate whether the Trump administration is unlawfully pressuring the agency to target Harvard.
Just weeks ago, Harvard was celebrated for resisting the Trump administration’s threats to withhold $2.2 billion in federal funding, positioning itself as a defender of academic freedom by filing a lawsuit challenging the funding freeze. But recently, the university has quietly reversed course, rebranding and altering the mission of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office, announcing that it will no longer fund affinity group celebrations during commencement, and sharing international student information with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“You mean to tell me banning affinity group graduations, handing over school records to the DHS gestapo, cracking down on protests, and dismantling DEI didn’t appease this fascist dictator?! I’m shocked I tell you,” Harvard Law School instructor Alejandra Caraballo said on Bluesky.
Earlier this year, Columbia University faced backlash for similar concessions. In an attempt to restore $400 million in frozen federal funding, Columbia agreed to suspend or expel students who participated in pro-Palestine protests, enforce a mask ban for demonstrators, coordinate with police to monitor students, and place an entire academic department under federal receivership. Despite these sweeping actions, the university has yet to recover the withheld funding.
“We literally saw this with Columbia and yet Harvard leadership seems inclined to learn this lesson the hard way,” Caraballo said. “There is no appeasing fascists. There is only fighting back.”
Last week, students affiliated with the unrecognized campus groups Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine and Jews 4 Palestine held a rally condemning Harvard University for targeting pro-Palestinian students and yielding to pressure from the Trump administration. Organizers emphasized that Harvard’s quiet capitulation should come as no surprise.
“Harvard’s Zionism and Trump’s fascism are not at odds. They are two sides of the same coin,” said Violet T.M. Barron, a Harvard University student and opinion writer at the Harvard Crimson.
After several hours of speeches and chants, protesters dropped banners, including one that read: “Harvard: You can’t be Zionist and Anti-Fascist.”
In March, Harvard’s School of Public Health terminated its research partnership with Birzeit University, a leading Palestinian institution in the occupied West Bank. That same month, Harvard removed Professors Cemal Kafadar and Rosie Bsheer from their leadership positions at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In April, the Divinity School suspended its Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative and declined to renew the position of Hilary Rantisi, its associate director and the only Palestinian American staff member in the school.
“Until the University rights its myriad wrongs, it deserves protest — not applause,” Barron wrote in the Crimson last month.
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