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 it would be “highly illegal” for the administration to remove the tax exempt status and that it would prove “destructive” for the university.

There would have to be “some reasoning that we have not been exposed to that would justify this dramatic move,” he told the outlet, adding that “tax-exempt status is granted to educational institutions to enable them to successfully carry out their mission of education, and for research universities, of research.”

Garber was responding to a Truth Social post issued by Trump that same day that said, “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” The president did not provide more details about the plan, including when the status would be revoked or why.

Some schools, religious organizations, charity groups, private foundations, and others can receive tax-exempt status if they meet 501(c)(3) nonprofit qualifications under the tax code established and enforced by the IRS.

The White House has threatened to pull funding from Ivy League schools over reports of anti-Semitism at campuses and for promoting discriminatory initiatives, among other measures. Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over funding that was blocked.

One Ivy League college, Columbia University, agreed to the Trump administration’s requests to overhaul its rules for public protests rather than risk billions of dollars in lost federal funds.

Trump previewed removing the university’s tax-exempt status in comments last month.

“Tax-exempt status, I mean, that’s a privilege. It’s really a privilege. And it’s been abused. By a lot more than Harvard, too,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, while also mentioning Princeton University and Columbia University, additional Ivy League schools. “It’s something that these schools really have to be very, very careful with.”

In mid-April, the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University after the school said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.

On April 14, Harvard rejected numerous demands from the administration, which is seeking oversight of Harvard’s student body, faculty, and curriculum. After that, the White House announced the freeze.

The university, in response, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in mid-April that argued the freeze in funding violates the Constitution, calling for the restoration of billions in research dollars.

“Moments ago, we filed a lawsuit to halt the funding freeze because it is unlawful and beyond the government’s authority,” Garber said in a statement at the time. “Before taking punitive action, the law requires that the federal government engage with us about the ways we are fighting and will continue to fight antisemitism. Instead, the government’s April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach.”

Trump administration officials have argued that a loss in funding would be Harvard’s own doing, arguing that the school isn’t obeying federal rules.

“The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in the position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in April.

When asked about the lawsuit, Leavitt told reporters that the government will respond in court. “It’s quite simple: if you want federal dollars, obey federal law,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has said the handling of pro-Palestinian protests by leaders of Harvard, Columbia, and other universities is a violation of the Civil Rights Act’s Title VI, which requires that recipients of federal funding not discriminate based on race or national origin.

Reuters contributed to this report.