Trump Called Out Over Promise to End Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status After Vow to Never Use the IRS ‘As a Political Weapon’
(Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
President Donald Trump raised eyebrows on Friday with a tweet absolutely insisting he will revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, something he has threatened in recent weeks as his administration and the university have battled.
“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social.
Many critics were quick to point out that Trump’s promise to use the IRS to hurt Harvard flies in the face of some of his past comments about weaponizing the agency. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake pointed out:
Trump in 2019: “I will never allow the IRS to be used as a political weapon, as it has been and it is currently being used.”
Trump in 2025: Taking away Harvard’s tax-exempt status is “what they deserve!”
Another account posted the clip of Trump’s comments in 2019, which he made during a speech to the Family Research Council – an evangelical non-profit group. Blake added that Trump made the comments in reference to a Democrat suggesting that religious groups engaged in political activities should lose their tax-exempt status.
Harvard sued the Trump administration in late April after billions in federally funded grants were cut following the university defying several demands from the administration. Harvard President Alan Garber said when announcing the suit, “No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.
“The University will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights,” Garber added. Trump has since argued that Harvard should be stripped of its tax-exempt status for engaging in political activity. “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!” Trump wrote in mid-April.
Other critics were quick to also call out Trump’s Friday post as hypocritical, while some also argued that the move would be illegal:
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