Harvard hit with $2.3 billion funding freeze after rejecting Trump demands

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status and said the university should apologize, a day after it rejected what it called unlawful demands to overhaul academic programs or lose federal grants. Beginning with Columbia University, the Trump administration has rebuked universities across the country over their handling of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled campuses last year. Trump has called the protests anti-American and antisemitic, accused universities of peddling "radical left" ideology, and promised to end federal grants and contracts to universities that do not agree to his administration's demands. Unlike Harvard, Columbia- a private school in New York City - agreed to negotiations over demands to tighten its protest rules. Under the US tax code, most universities are exempt from federal income tax because they are deemed to be "operated exclusively" for public educational purposes. A few of Harvard's peer institutions lent support on Tuesday to the school's stand against the Trump administration, including Princeton and Stanford Universities.