Harvard, one of the US’ most prestigious higher education institutions, found itself in a dramatic standoff with the Trump administration after it received a letter last week detailing the latter’s demands on the changes it expects in the university.
The letter, which was sent by the White House’s antisemitism task force, made demands that the university could not accept.
However, all this was triggered by a ‘mistake’ from the Trump administration’s end. Soon after receiving the letter, the university received a call from a Trump official, saying the letter was “unauthorized” and should not have been sent, reported The New York Times citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
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The letter, sent on April 11, was signed by three top Trump administration officials – Josh Gruenbaum of General Services Administration, Thomas Wheeler of the Department of Education, and Sean Keveney of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
According to three other people, the letter was sent by Keveney, who is also a member of the White House’s antisemitism task force.
While the content of the letter was authentic, why it was sent on April 11 and how it was mishandled remain unclear, said the three people. While some within the White House believe that the letter was sent prematurely, others think that it was meant to be circulated within the antisemitism taskforce and not to be sent to Harvard, they told NYT.
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Harvard and Trump Administration were already in talks
The timing of the letter was imperative as during the weeks prior April 11, Harvard and the Trump administration were in talks over how to handle antisemitism on the university campus.
Harvard had hired two lawyers to strike a deal with the Trump administration – William Burck and Robert Hur. On the Trump administration end of discussions were the three people whose signs are on the said letter, also lawyers.
The two parties had been engaged in discussions over antisemitism on the campus and how the university deals with it among other concerns, the report said. The lawyers representing the Trump Administration told Harvard that they will send a letter detailing what they expect from the university specifically. However, the letter, which was sent overnight after Friday listed demands that shocked Harvard and prompted a strong rejection from the university’s end on Monday.
The Calls
Soon after Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s demands, one of its lawyers received a call from Gruenbaum, the NYT report said, citing two people familiar with the matter. Initially, Gruenbaum told them that the letter was not authorized by him and Wheeler. Later, he changed his stance a bit and said that the letter was supposed to be sent at some point, but not on Friday, one of the two sources said.
A similar call by Gruenbaum was also made to a lawyer representing Columbia University, two people with knowledge of the call told NYT. The Trump administration, represented by the same three lawyers, was also engaged in similar talks with Columbia. After the row erupted, Gruenbaum called Columbia University’s lawyer to tell that the letter was “unauthorized”, the two people said.
What Trump administration said
Even after making the calls to Harvard and reportedly accepting that the letter was sent mistakenly, the Trump administration has not withdrawn it. “It was malpractice on the side of Harvard’s lawyers not to pick up the phone and call the members of the antisemitism task force who they had been talking to for weeks…Instead, Harvard went on a victimhood campaign,” the NYT quoted May Mailman, the White House senior policy strategist as saying.
However, she expressed potential of resuming the talks, provided that Harvard apologises to the students for enabling antisemitism on the campus and abides by the Trump administration’s demands.
How Harvard reacted
To the White House claim that it should have checked with Trump administration’s lawyers after receiving the letter, Harvard said that the letter “was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised,” Harvard said in a statement on Friday. “Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”
“It remains unclear to us exactly what, among the government’s recent words and deeds, were mistakes or what the government actually meant to do and say. But even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences” on students and employees and “the standing of American higher education in the world,” it added.
Damage done
While the timing of the said letter that erupted a huge row between Harvard and Trump administration was off, and reportedly the latter’s mistake, it has already set in motion a series of barbs by President Trump.
Trump has not only blocked billions in federal funding to the university, he has also threatened its tax-exempt status.
More recently, Trump has also called Harvard a “joke” and a “disgrace”. “Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
