US President Donald Trump declared that Harvard University would lose its tax-exempt status, a designation that has allowed the school to avoid paying levies on its revenue under classification for educational institutions.
Trump posted the announcement after weeks of threatening an Internal Revenue Service review of the Ivy League's tax-free treatment.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!” Trump wrote.
Conservatives have targeted Harvard and other elite universities in recent years over idealogical differences and allegations of a rise in antisemitism amid campus protests against the war in Gaza. Trump and other Republicans have accused the insttitutions of promoting liberal agendas and so-called “wokeness.”
“The next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson,” Trump said during a Thursday night commencement address at the University of Alabama. “It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide.”
The IRS code prevents presidents from interfering with the federal tax agency's decisions, raising questions about whether Trump's Friday announcement stemmed from his own decision-making or a reference to the end of the independent agency's review.
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