Trump Tries to Justify Cutting Harvard Research Grants
By Reuters | 20 Jul, 2025

A Boston Federal District Court Judge didn't appear receptive to Trump administration arguments at a key hearing in a suit filed by Harvard to block cuts to its research grants.

Protesters gathered outside a Boston courthouse on Monday, as Harvard University urged a federal judge to order the Trump administration to restore about $2.5 billion in canceled funding to the Ivy League school.

Harvard says hundreds of research projects, including ones concerning cancer treatments, infectious diseases, and Parkinson's disease will be in jeopardy unless the judge declares the grant cancellations unlawful.

The court hearing before U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs lasted more than two hours, but ended without a ruling.

A lawyer for the Trump administration told the judge the cancelled grants reflect a government priority not to send money to institutions that practice antisemitism.

A lawyer for Harvard said the government has made wholesale cuts to research under the guise of combating antisemitism, but hasn't identified any connection between the two.

Harvard has become a central focus of a broad campaign by the Trump administration to leverage federal funding to force change at U.S. universities, which Trump says are gripped by "radical left" ideologies.

Judge Burroughs said she had problems with the government's argument that it can terminate Harvard's federal funding grants for any policy reasons, saying the consequences in terms of constitutional law would be "staggering."