The Trump administration intends to ask all federal agencies to seek ways to end their contracts with Harvard University, a senior administration official told NBC News on Tuesday.
“GSA will send a letter to federal agencies today asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be canceled or redirected elsewhere,” the senior official said, referring to the General Services Administration.
The development was first reported by The New York Times.
This marks the latest escalation in a months-long fight between the Trump administration and Harvard.
A copy of the letter, obtained by NBC News, instructs agencies to respond to the GSA with a list of contracts they have terminated with the university by June 6.
“Going forward, we also encourage your agency to seek alternative vendors for future services where you had previously considered Harvard,” the letter says.
The letter, signed by the commissioner of the GSA’s federal acquisition service, John Gruenbaum, accused Harvard of racial discrimination in its hiring and admissions process, and of “ongoing inaction” over the harassment of its Jewish students.
Harvard did not immediately return a request for comment.
The feud largely stems from the university’s refusal to comply with sweeping demands from the Trump administration’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism last month. The task force sought to review who Harvard can admit or hire and subject its faculty to a government audit.
In response, the administration stripped the university of $2 billion in federal research funding.
The administration also sought to block Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students last week, an effort that was temporarily blocked by a federal judge after the university sued.
Trump said on Monday in a post on Truth Social that he was considering taking $3 billion of grant money away from what he called “a very anti-Semitic” Harvard, and giving the funds to trade schools instead.
