Harvard funding could be redirected to trade schools by Trump
Donald Trump is considering redirecting $3 Billion of funding meant for scientific and engineering research at Harvard to trade schools.
According to The New Arab and Agencies on May 27th, Trump announced his plans on his own social media channel “Truth Social” on May 26th.
The announcement comes less than a week after the Trump administration sought to prevent Harvard from enrolling foreign students and cited “Radical Left idiots and ‘bird brains'” professors as his reason for pulling funding.
Despite the proposal, Harvard has claimed that it was told that virtually all of its federal grant awards were revoked earlier in May after receiving a series of letters from the NIH, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and other agencies.
The letters all cited the fact that funding was “no longer effectuate agency priorities” as their reasoning for cutting grants to Harvard.
In response, Harvard has sued the US government in order to restore funding claiming that such cuts are an unconstitutional attack on the institutions free speech rights and therefore unlawful.
Since returning to office in January 2025, the Trump administration has waged a consistent battle with US universities, with students involved in pro-Palestine protests being described as “lunatics” by US Secretary of State Marc Rubio who also accused foreign students of coming “not just to study but to participate in movements that vandalise universities, harass students, take over buildings and cause chaos.”
The atmosphere that is being cultivated by the Trump administration is having the desired effect as many international students are now questioning whether the US is still a viable destination for study.
In March 2025, pro-Palestinian protestor and US resident Mahmour Khalil was detained for his role in protests that took place on Columbia University Campus and has since been held at a migrant centre in Louisiana.
The New Arab/ Agencies/ Maghrebi
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