When President Donald Trump stripped major, Ivy League universities of their federal funding earlier this year due to threats against Jewish faculty members and DEI policies, Columbia University quickly capitulated to the demands in order to get its funding restored.

Harvard University acted tough at first, but then also eventually buckled. Now, President Trump is urging his Education Secretary to not settle with the university for less than $500 million in exchange for its federal funding to be restored, the New York Post reported. 

Columbia University had agreed to stop its DEI nonsense, provide payouts to targeted Jewish faculty, and pay a $200 million fine for civil violations in order for its federal funds to be returned.

At this point, it seems like the stakes for Harvard will now be a lot higher.

What's going on?

According to the president, it's up to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to ensure that Harvard doesn't settle for less than the $500 million the Trump administration wants as a condition of restoring a staggering $2.4 billion in federal grants.

During a recent Cabinet meeting, with cameras rolling, Trump made his conditions clear to McMahon.

"We want nothing less than $500 million from Harvard. Don’t negotiate, Linda. They’ve been very bad," the president said.

Trump urges McMahon to collect ‘nothing less than $500 million from Harvard’ https://t.co/Ug3Wp2IfeT pic.twitter.com/sMPY47HmtA

— New York Post (@nypost) August 26, 2025

The Post noted:

In July, the president said that Harvard ‘wants to settle’ after seeing Columbia University get all of its grant funding back in exchange for a $200 million fine to resolve civil rights violations.

"We’re hoping that Harvard will come to the table," McMahon said to the media last month. "We’re already seeing other universities that are taking these measures before investigation or before our coming in to talk to them."

Social media reacts

Users across social media reacted to the president's insistence on $500 million.

"Half a billion reasons why truth’s winning. Harvard just paid for their arrogance," one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, "I can't believe we were funding their corruption to begin with."

It'll be interesting to see if they ultimately settle or if the unversity continues to fight it in court.