Harvard’s President Says Revoking of Tax-Exempt Status ‘Highly Illegal’

President Donald Trump said in a social media post last week that his administration will issue the revocation.

Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest organized by the City of Cambridge calling on Harvard leadership to resist federal government interference at the university in Cambridge, Mass., on April 12, 2025. Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

The head of Harvard University responded to a new warning from President Donald Trump to remove the Ivy League college’s tax-exempt status amid a protracted battle between Ivy League colleges and the administration.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on May 2, Harvard President Alan Garber said he believes that it would be “highly illegal” for the administration to remove the tax exempt status and that it would prove “destructive” for the university.