US President Donald Trump has called Harvard a "joke" and said it should lose its government research contracts after the top university refused demands that it accept outside political supervision.

The Trump administration had also formally asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the famed seat of learning's tax-exempt status, US media reported, a day after the president first made the threat.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also canceled US$2.7 million worth of research grants to Harvard on Wednesday and threatened the university's ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa-holders' "illegal and violent activities".

"If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," a DHS statement said, with Secretary Kristi Noem accusing the university of "bending the knee to antisemitism."

International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard's enrollment this academic year, according to its website.

"Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World's Great Universities or Colleges," Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.

"Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds."

Trump is furious at the storied university – which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners – for rejecting his demand to submit to government supervision on admissions, hiring and political slant.

Other institutions, including Columbia University, have bowed to less far-ranging demands from the Trump administration, which claims that the educational elite is too left-wing.

Harvard flatly rejected the pressure, with its president, Alan Garber, saying that the university refuses to "negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."

Trump this week ordered the freezing of US$2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard, a global research powerhouse.

He also said on Tuesday that Harvard "should lose its tax exempt status" as a nonprofit educational institution if it did not back down.

CNN and the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the IRS tax bureau was now making plans to do so following a request from Trump.

White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said "any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the president."

He added that "investigations into any institution's violations of its tax status were initiated prior to" Trump's post on Truth Social.

The Republican's war against the intellectual elite is echoed in similar, unprecedented pressure campaigns against top law firms and big media groups, including the Associated Press.

Demonstrating the broadening resonance of the row, Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr spoke out in support of Harvard after his team defeated the Memphis Grizzlies.

Kerr, sporting a Harvard T-shirt, called the demands on the university the "dumbest thing I've ever heard" and citing his support for "academic freedom."

The White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over the inner workings of the country's oldest and wealthiest university – and one of the most respected educational and research institutions in the world.

In a letter sent to Harvard, the administration's demands included:

- ending admissions that take into account the student's race or national origins

- preventing admission of foreign students "hostile to the American values and institutions"

- ending staff hiring based on race, religion, sex or national origin

- reducing the power of students in campus governance

- auditing students and staff for "viewpoint diversity"

- reforming entire programs for "egregious records of anti-Semitism or other bias"

- cracking down on campus protests. (AFP)
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Last updated: 2025-04-17 HKT 16:45