Trump Threatens Harvard After It Defies His Demands

Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg

It's Tax Day Tuesday! This year marks the 70th anniversary of April 15 becoming the federal income tax filing deadline, which had been March 15 from 1918 until 1955. If you're one of the roughly 20 million taxpayers who waited until this week to file, this tidbit might make you feel better about your procrastination: The Internal Revenue Service said last week that more than $1 billion in refunds for tax year 2021 remain unclaimed because taxpayers have not yet filed their returns for that year. Returns claiming a refund must be filed within three years of the due date. Otherwise, the money will go to the Treasury. Get those returns in!

Trump Threatens Harvard After It Defies His Demands

The Trump administration on Monday froze $2.2 billion in grant funding and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University hours after the school refused to comply with its demands for policy changes. President Donald Trump followed up Tuesday by threatening the university's tax exemption. In a post on social media, he wrote: "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!

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump also wants the university to apologize for the "egregious antisemitism" that took place on its campus during protests against Israel's war in Gaza.

How we got here: The Trump administration has threatened to cut millions or billions of dollars in federal funding for a series of schools unless those institutions agreed to policy changes. Harvard appears to be the first major university to reject the administration's demands. Those demands, laid out in a letter sent Friday, included:

  • Governance and leadership reforms;

  • Merit-based hiring and admissions policies and the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs;

  • An external audit of the student body, faculty, staff, leadership and all departments for "viewpoint diversity";

  • Reform of programs with "egregious" records of antisemitism or other bias;

  • A ban on masks worn at campus protests and reforms to student discipline policies;

  • Cooperation with immigration officials.

"Harvard has in recent years failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment," Trump administration officials wrote in a letter Friday in which they laid out their demands for changes.

Harvard told the administration Monday that it would not accept the proposed agreement. Lawyers for the school said it had already made, and will continue to make, changes to combat bias and promote civil discourse. They argued that the administration is ignoring those changes, violating the First Amendment and the university's statutory rights and undercutting important research and innovation, including work at independently operated hospitals.

"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," attorneys William Burck and Robert Hur wrote. "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government." Both of those lawyers have strong conservative ties.

In a statement explaining the university's stance, Harvard President Alan Garber said that the administration was pushing beyond the legal limits on the federal government's power. "Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the 'intellectual conditions' at Harvard," he wrote. "The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. ... 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 administration's joint task force to combat antisemitism responded to Harvard's decision by saying that harassment of Jewish students is "intolerable" and disruption of learning on campuses is unacceptable. It added that it is time for universities to commit to change if they want to continue receiving taxpayer funding: "Harvard's statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation's most prestigious universities and colleges - that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws."

IRS Plans to Cut Up to 40% of Its Workforce: Report

About 22,000 Internal Revenue Service employees have accepted the Trump administration's latest deferred resignation offer, The New York Times reports.

The agency reportedly had just over 100,000 employees before President Trump returned to office. About 5,000 of those workers have resigned since January and another 7,000 probationary workers were laid off in cuts that have faced legal challenges. If the resignations and layoffs all take effect, the agency would lose about a third of its workforce this year.

That's not all. The Federal News Network reported Tuesday that, according to an internal agency memo, the IRS is planning to slash up to 40% of its workforce, in part through biweekly Reduction in Force (RIF) notices starting this week. The IRS memo reportedly says that "taxpayer services and compliance will need to be trimmed" and will see a "high" level of cuts in a second phase of job eliminations.

By the time the cuts and layoffs are done, the IRS reportedly plans for staffing to be reduced to between 60,000 and 70,000 employees. Such a sizable reduction is also expected to result in a significant drop in federal revenue collection.

The Treasury Department spokesperson told CNBC that the number of employees leaving the revenue service is "approximately the same" as the number added under former President Joe Biden's administration, which reportedly added about 20,000 employees at the agency. "The roll back of wasteful Biden-era hiring surges, and consolidation of critical support functions are vital to improve both efficiency and quality of service," the spokesperson reportedly said.

Biden Defends Social Security in First Speech Since Leaving Office

In his first public speech since leaving office, former President Joe Biden defended Social Security as a "sacred promise" to millions of Americans and criticized Trump administration officials for remarks about the program.

Delivering a keynote address at a conference in Chicago hosted by Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled, Biden touted steps his administration had taken to improve Social Security customer service, saying he had made the program more efficient and effective while strengthening anti-fraud measures.

Without naming Trump Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Biden criticized comments he made recently. "The current secretary of commerce doesn't seem to get it, or based on his comments, he doesn't seem to even care," Biden said.

Lutnick had dismissed concerns about Social Security checks not going out in a timely fashion, saying his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain. "No kidding," Biden said. "Her son-in-law is a billionaire."

Biden also noted that Musk - again without naming him - had called Social Security a Ponzi scheme.

The former president also made a joke based on debunked claims by President Trump and Musk that millions of dead people over the age of 150 are still getting Social Security benefits, including one as old as 360 years. "By the way, those 300-year-old folk getting that Social Security, I want to meet them because I want to figure out how they live that long," the 82-year-old Biden said. "I'm looking for longevity."

Trump targets Social Security fraud: Biden's speech comes on the same day that Trump signed a memo seeking to curb Social Security fraud, including restrictions on undocumented immigrants receiving Social Security retirement benefits, which the law already prohibits. The Trump memo expands the Social Security Administration's fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. Attorney offices and also establishes a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. Attorney offices. Trump also is requiring Social Security's Inspector General to investigate benefits for individuals aged 100 or older with mismatched records.

Those moves come despite evidence that fraud and improper payments in the program are not widespread. "There is no evidence that there is a very much fraud at all," Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told Axios.

Democrats and allies also rallied on Tuesday as part of a "Hands Off Social Security!" national day of action in response to the Trump administrations cuts to the Social Security Administration, changes that are part of the DOGE-led overhaul of government.

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