U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration escalated its attacks on Harvard University on Friday, as it sued the Ivy League school to recover billions of dollars for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students.
Harvard has been a central focus of the president’s campaign to force changes at major U.S. universities, which Trump has derided for alleged antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies, by threatening to withhold or take back federal funding.
In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice said Harvard remains “deliberately indifferent” to harassment of Jewish and Israeli students, and has intentionally refused to enforce its campus rules when victims are Jews or Israelis.
“This sent the clear message to Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli community that the indifference was not an accident; they were being intentionally excluded and effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities,” according to the complaint.
Harvard will defend against the lawsuit, which a spokesperson called “yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.”
