President Trump hinted Thursday that nonprofit organizations other than Harvard University could face investigations of their tax-exempt status if his administration finds that they are abusing the privilege.
“We’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal. They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad,” Mr. Trump said.
He continued, “They’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that.”
Mr. Trump was asked by reporters why he thought it was appropriate for the IRS to consider changing Harvard University’s nonprofit tax-exempt status based on policy disagreements he has with the Ivy League school. He said that too often conservatives, including Christian evangelicals, are targeted by the federal tax agency.
He went on to say that he thinks that Harvard is a “disgrace.”
“They’re obviously antisemitic, and all of a sudden they’re starting to behave,” Mr. Trump said, referencing pro-Hamas protests and intimidation of Jewish students on the college campus last summer.
“Tax-exempt status — it’s a privilege. It’s really a privilege, and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard, so we’ll see how that all works out,” he said.
Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned last year after six months in office, her presidency rocked by her handling of campus antisemitism and a plagiarism scandal that called into question her fitness to lead the nation’s oldest university.
Ms. Gay, a political scientist, assumed the top job on July 1, making her presidency the shortest in the school’s 387-year history.
Harvard is facing a generational threat to its stature as the nation’s preeminent university, ignited by what has been described as its lackluster response to rising campus antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on civilians in Israel.
The administration has pumped up its battle with Harvard and threatened to revoke the university’s ability to host international students as the president called for eliminating the school’s tax-exempt status.
The Department of Homeland Security ordered Harvard late Tuesday to turn over “detailed records” of its foreign student visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities” by April 30. International students make up 27% of the campus.
The department also said it was canceling two grants to the school totaling $2.7 million. The administration has said it is freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding to the university.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
