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Harvard says it will give back coronavirus funds after Trump asked them to. Here's a look at past tiffs between the president and the university.

Bryan PietschApr 26, 2020, 21:59 IST
Harvard says it will give back coronavirus funds after Trump asked them to. Here's a look at past tiffs between the president and the university.

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  • Harvard University, which has a $41 billion endowment, was criticized by the president and others for initially accepting nearly $9 million in coronavirus relief funds.
  • Even after President Trump said "they have to pay it back," the university said on Wednesday morning they would keep it — but then changed course later that day and said they would return it.
  • Here's a look at past tiffs between Trump and the prestigious university.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

After a back and forth with critics, among them President Donald Trump, Harvard University said on Wednesday it will return over $8 million in grant money from the federal government's coronavirus relief fund.

"They have to pay it back... this isn't meant for one of the richest institutions," Trump said of Harvard, which has a $41 billion endowment.

Harvard initially stood its ground on Wednesday morning, and said it would not return the funds, before later that day switching course and saying it would give back the money.

Here's a look at past tiffs between Harvard and the president.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The nearly $9 million grant

The nearly $9 million grant
APRIL 21: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on April 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

At a briefing at the White House this week, Trump demanded that Harvard return the millions in coronavirus relief funds it had accepted.

"I want Harvard to pay the money back, OK?" Trump said. "If they won't do that, then we will do something else.

"They have to pay it back, I don't like it. This is meant for workers — this isn't meant for one of the richest institutions," he said.

Harvard was the subject of some jabs in a March briefing, in which Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro said "of course, you know the Harvard joke: You can tell a Harvard man, you just can't tell him much. Right?"

Trump replied, "They can't tell them much."

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Trump on affirmative action

Trump on affirmative action
Charles Krupa/AP

The Trump administration went up against Harvard in 2018, supporting a group of Asian Americans who were suing the university over its affirmative action admissions policy.

The Justice Department accused Harvard of "engaging in outright racial balancing" by limiting admissions for academically-qualified Asian Americans.

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Harvard's former president: 'This administration seems unpredictable in many ways'

Harvard's former president: 'This administration seems unpredictable in many ways'
Historian Drew Gilpin Faust speaks onstage at the American Experience 'Death and the Civil War' panel during day 1 of the PBS portion of the 2012 Summer TCA Tour held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 21, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Drew Faust, who was president of Harvard at the start of Trump's term, was pointed in her criticism of the president.

"This administration seems unpredictable in many ways," Faust said in 2017 at a Bloomberg News event, according to The Harvard Crimson.

"It doesn't seem tied to the traditional notions of the role of government," she said. "And so [the new administration's] understanding of this long relationship between federal government and higher education is unclear to us."

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Harvard professors' outspoken criticism

Harvard professors' outspoken criticism
Harvard Law School/Facebook

Many Harvard professors have been outspoken in their criticism of Trump.

In 2017, BuzzFeed News reported that a top Harvard Law professor, Laurence Tribe, shared a conspiracy theory about Trump sharing Russian money for an FBI letter.

Tribe said of the story that "key details have been corroborated and none, to my knowledge, have been refuted. If true, it's huge."

Harvard Law professor John Coates said last year that one of Trump's tweets repeating a statement that his impeachment could cause a "Civil War like" fracture in the United States was impeachable in itself.

"This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment - a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power," Coates said, according to a report by The Hill.

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