President Donald Trump escalated his war with Harvard University on Wednesday, accusing it of “treating the country with great disrespect” and suggesting that it should stop fighting his policies.
“But Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their a– kicked, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“All they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper,” Trump said. “They’ve got to behave themselves.”
The president has accused Harvard of being antisemitic and taking in billions of federal dollars.
President Donald Trump takes questions from the press during a swearing-in ceremony for the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, at the White House in Washington, May 28, 2025.
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“I think they’re dealing very badly. Every time they fight, they lose another $250 million,” Trump said. “Yesterday, we found another $100 million.”
The president also doubled down on his claims that the school has enrolled too many foreign students and not done enough to ensure they aren’t “troublemakers.”
“They’re taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalized, we don’t want them making trouble in our country,” Trump said, adding that Harvard should cap its foreign students at 15%.
Harvard’s Eliot House tower on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 27, 2025.
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“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools. They can’t get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country,” he said.
Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard demanding information on every international student with an F-1 visa that allows nonimmigrants to study in the U.S., warning that failing to comply with the request would result in the withdrawal of the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.
Harvard, which has sued the administration over its funding and grant cuts, said in a statement that it provided the federal government with “thousands of data points concerning its entire F-1 visa student population.” However, last week, Noem announced that she revoked the school’s SEVP certification and prevented it from accepting foreign students.
Harvard filed a lawsuit the next day and a judge granted a temporary order blocking the move.
President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House, May 28, 2025 in Washington.
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Asked about a group of Jewish students at Harvard who protested on Tuesday against the federal government’s threats and cuts over perceived antisemitism, Trump dismissed their criticism and reiterated his claims of antisemitism at Harvard and other elite institutions.
“They’re hurting themselves. They’re fighting,” Trump said. “You know, Columbia has been, really, and they were very, very bad. What they’ve done that very antisemitic and lots of other things. But they’re working with us on finding a solution. And, you know, they take it off that hot seat. But Harvard wants to fight.”