Trump admin asking federal agencies to cancel remaining Harvard contracts

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The Trump administration is asking all federal agencies to find ways to terminate all federal contracts with Havard University amid an ongoing standoff over foreign students’ records at the Ivy League school. 

The General Services Administration is planning to send a letter Tuesday instructing all federal agencies to review the estimated $100 million remaining in federal contracts with Harvard and potentially "find alternative vendors," according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News.

The remaining federal contracts include a $527,000 agreement for Harvard ManageMentor Licenses, which was awarded in September 2021, a $523,000 contract for Harvard to conduct research on energy drinks and the health outcomes of other dietary intakes over time, which was awarded in August 2023, and a $39,000 contract for graduate student research services, which was award in April 2025, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News. 

TRUMP ACCUSES HARVARD OF BEING 'VERY SLOW' TO TURN OVER FOREIGN STUDENT INFO

Protesters outside Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., April 25, 2025.  (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

The New York Times first reported about a draft of the letter. 

In the letter, GSA's Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum said Harvard "continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life." 

He said Harvard has shown "no indication" of reforming its admissions process, despite the Supreme Court ruling that university's long-standing policy discriminates on the basis of race. 

For applicants in the top academic decile, admissions rates were 56% for African-Americans, 31% for Hispanics, 15% for Whites and 13% for Asians, according to the lawsuit. Gruenbaum said Harvard "now has to offer a remedial math course, which has been described as ‘middle school math’ for incoming freshmen." He said that was a direct result "of employing discriminatory factors, instead of merit, in admission decisions." 

Gruenbaum also cited possible violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 regarding Harvard's hiring, promotion, compensation, and other personnel-related actions. He said discriminatory practices "have been exposed at the Harvard Law Review, where internal documents that have been made public detail the pervasive and explicit racial discrimination in the publication’s article selection and editor appointment process."

"GSA is also aware of recent events at Harvard University involving anti-Semitic action that suggest the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students," Gruenbaum wrote. "Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of its students has at times grounded day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and profoundly alarmed the general public." 

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard University for comment Tuesday.

President Donald Trump speaks during the Memorial Day wreath-laying in Arlington National Cemetery on May 26, 2025.  (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Harvard has already sued in federal court seeking the restoration of about $3.2 billion in federal grant funding already frozen by the administration since last month. 

In a separate suit, the university was granted a temporary restraining order on Friday that temporarily blocks the government from canceling the school's certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S. Harvard said the revocation would impact more than 7,000 visa holders – more than a quarter of its student body.

A brief federal court hearing was held Tuesday morning in federal court in Boston on the matter. A judge scheduled another hearing for Thursday to allow both parties more time to present their case. 

President Donald Trump said in a TRUTH Social post on Monday that he is "considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land." 

"What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!" he wrote. 

JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT

The president also accused Harvard of being "very slow" in handing over documents about foreign students and of having "shopped around and found the absolute best judge (for them)." 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem said last week that she revoked Harvard's certification after the university refused to comply with multiple requests for information on foreign students while "perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion' policies." 

A pedestrian with an umbrella walks by Harvard Yard as a Nor'easter hits the New England area in Cambridge, MA on May 22, 2025.  (Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The requested records include any and all audio or video footage in Harvard’s possession regarding threats to other students or university personnel, "deprivation of rights" of other classmates or university personnel, and "dangerous or violent activity, whether on or off campus" by a nonimmigrant student enrolled at Harvard in the last five years. 

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Noem is also asking for any and all disciplinary records and audio or video footage of any protest activity involving nonimmigrant students. DHS said that Harvard's responses so far have been insufficient. 

Fox News' Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report.