IRS Weighs Revoking Harvard's Tax-Exempt Status Amid Trump Feud

IRS Weighs Revoking Harvard's Tax-Exempt Status Amid Trump Feud
Above: People gather around the John Harvard Statue on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass., on April 15, 2025. Image copyright: Joseph Prezioso/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images

The Spin

Republican narrative

Harvard is an elitist corporation that has created a hostile environment for Jewish students through its failure to address antisemitism. The college's actions — and lack of action in certain instances — call into question its tax-exempt status. American taxpayers shouldn't be footing the bill for an institution that has enabled hate speech from some of its students that is a threat to US national security.

Democratic narrative

Harvard and similar independent institutions of higher learning must stand strong against these unprecedented, and likely illegal, threats and actions by the Trump administration. The administration is attacking Harvard by claiming it's rooting out antisemitism, but Trump's public statements show he has a personal axe to grind with what he perceives to be the college's ideology.

Metaculus Prediction



The Controversies



Political split

LEFT

RIGHT

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