US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration was close to signing a $500 million financial agreement with Harvard University that would allow the elite institution to operate trade schools, AFP reported.
These comments mark the latest twist in Trump’s unprecedented attack on Harvard over accusations of anti-Semitism and bias, which the university denies, claiming the federal government is focused on recruiting, admissions, and oversight of its academic programs.
“Well, we’re very close to an agreement,” Trump said at the White House. “They’re going to spend about $500 million to open trade schools. They’ll train people in artificial intelligence and a lot of other things, engines, a lot of other things. You know, it’s a big investment in a trade school, made by very smart people, and then their sins are forgiven.”
US officials accused Harvard and other educational institutions of promoting so-called “woke” ideology and failing to adequately protect their Jewish students during the intervention.
In early September, a Boston judge ruled that the Trump administration must lift its freeze on nearly $2.6 billion in federal funding to Harvard, writing that Trump’s Department of Education “used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated attack on the nation’s leading universities.” Two weeks later, the administration imposed new restrictions on Harvard’s access to government funds, requiring the university to use its own funds to pay for the financial aid packages promised to students by federal officials.
In July, Columbia University agreed to pay the administration nearly $200 million and committed to complying with rules prohibiting it from considering race in its admissions processes. The University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League school, also echoed the Trump administration’s concerns, announcing it would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports.