Harvard University’s campaign of defiance against the Trump administration could cost the Ivy League university up to a $1 billion a year in revenue if the president follows through with his threat to cut off all federal grants and research funding.
The elite institution is even hitting up wealthy donors for a fresh infusion of cash as it grapples with the potential losses, which could eventually hinder its ability to support its $6.4 billion annual operating costs, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal.
And even its massive $53 billion endowment — the largest in the world for a university — can’t necessarily bail the school out.
Donors have imposed restrictions on more than 80% of those funds, meaning the school can’t simply tap into those resources to close the gap without risking lawsuits, the WSJ reports.
President Trump has put the squeeze on the top-rank school’s pocketbook in recent months, alleging it failed to take adequate action to address antisemitism on campus. Trump ordered the freezing of some $3.2 billion in contracts and grants and yanked around $700 million in annual federal research funds since May.
Trump’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism warned Harvard President Alan Garber in a letter this week that the university is in imminent danger of losing “all federal financial resources,” issuing a blistering report about the horrors facing Jewish students, faculty and staff on the Cambridge, Mass. campus.
But the university has held fast, where Columbia and other elite institutions have struck deals.
Harvard sued the Trump administration twice — once over the lost research funding and a second time over its international student ban. Though a federal judge issued a temporary injunction on the ban last month, the administration said it plans to appeal.
Harvard is sitting on a hefty pile of cash — some $3 billion in operating reserves — and it typically has a budget surplus. Its operating revenue in 2024 saw the school some $45 million in the black, the outlet reported.
However, the university borrowed $750 million in April to address budget gaps and has set aside some $250 million more to make up for lost federal research dollars.
The school has even been hitting up wealthy donors and corporations to plug budgetary holes.
Garber established a Presidential Priorities Fund to accept donations intended to give the university the “flexibility to address pressing needs and fresh opportunities as they arise.”
Big-money supporters, such as billionaire investor Len Blavatnik, answered the call, contributing a $19 million gift to Harvard Medical School to support life-sciences research, a source familiar with the matter told the Journal.
But at the same time, the flow of funds from wealthy Jewish donors has slowed to a trickle after Hamas’ bloody terror attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Journal.
In addition to pulling federal dollars, Trump has waged economic war against Harvard by attempting to curtail its admission of international students, which the WSJ estimates could cost the school another $90 million a year in lost tuition.
Also under threat is Harvard’s tax-exempt status, which the outlet notes could dramatically stunt donations and stick the school with a massive property tax bill.
Congress raised the tax on Harvard’s endowment six-fold via Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to 8%, which will cost the school another $200 million in annual taxes, according to the Harvard Crimson.
The school has already begun cutbacks — implementing a freeze on new hires, laying off staff and cutting department budgets.
“Harvard is peering over the precipice,” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a trade group for higher education told the Journal.
“If the school’s court battles against the Trump administration don’t succeed … Harvard and American education will suffer a severe, perhaps irreparable blow.”
For its part, Harvard said in a statement that it “has made significant strides to combat bigotry, hate and bias. We are not alone in confronting this challenge and recognize that this work is ongoing.”
In total, the Journal’s research calculated, Harvard’s loss of endowment income, federal research funding and reduced tuition costs combined could add up to a $1 billion annual budget gap.
