Trump decides to cut all Financial Ties with Harvard University

The Federal Government intends to cancel all remaining financial contracts with Harvard, a senior official said on Tuesday, in President Donald Trump's latest attempt to force the prestigious university to submit to unprecedented oversight.

The administration “will send a letter to federal agencies today asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be canceled or redirected elsewhere,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The ending of contracts - estimated by US media to be worth $100 million - would mark the severance of business ties between the government and an institution that is both the country's oldest university and a global research powerhouse.

Amid a broad push to amass power in the White House, Trump has singled out Harvard for particularly fierce punishment. His administration accuses the Cambridge, Massachusetts university of permitting anti-Semitism and pervasive liberal bias.

Harvard has rejected orders to allow a series of extraordinary measures, including an audit of political leanings on campus and a ban on students deemed to be “hostile to the American values.”

In the last few weeks, the elite educational bastion has seen billions of dollars in federal grants frozen and an attempt -- paused last Friday by a court ruling - to end its ability to host foreign students.

The university is fighting back, arguing that the Trump attacks are unconstitutional and would cripple its ability to function. On Monday, Trump vowed he would prevail in the increasingly public struggle. In a social media post he claimed that foreign students at Harvard included “radicalized lunatics, troublemakers.”