Jill Filipovic: “One of the more peculiar positions of the American right is its simultaneous obsession with and hostility to education, and particularly with elite educational institutions. Donald Trump has picked fights with Ivy League schools and talks about them as woke hellscapes; he’s also exceptionally proud that he has a degree from one, and judges others’ intelligence by which schools they attended.”

“Conservative culture warriors want to take over elite universities because those universities have such caché, even though in taking them over, conservatives would kill exactly what has made those institutions desirable and admirable: their dedication to rigor and excellence.”

“Harvard University received an emailed letter from the Trump administration last Friday that included a series of demands about hiring, admissions and curriculum so onerous that school officials decided they had no choice but to take on the White House,” the New York Times reports.

“The university announced its intentions on Monday, setting off a tectonic battle between one of the country’s most prestigious universities and a U.S. president. Then, almost immediately, came a frantic call from a Trump official.”

“The April 11 letter from the White House’s task force on antisemitism, this official told Harvard, should not have been sent and was ‘unauthorized.’”

“The Trump administration accused Harvard University of failing to report large foreign donations to the federal government as required by law, part of a widening effort to target the institution after it refused to comply with President Trump’s demands,” the New York Times reports.

“The Department of Homeland Security sent Harvard a letter on Wednesday threatening to revoke its eligibility to enroll international students unless it submits information on international students’ disciplinary records and protest participation,” the Harvard Crimson reports.

“The Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, which would be an extraordinary step of retaliation as the Trump administration seeks to turn up pressure on the university that has defied its demands to change its hiring and other practices,” CNN reports.

“A final decision on rescinding the university’s tax exemption is expected soon.”

President Trump attacked Harvard saying that “Leftist dopes” are teaching at the university “and because of that, Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges.”

He added: “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Wall Street Journal: “Now that Harvard has stuck its neck out, it is waiting for support. The institution is working with Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump that the university hired earlier this year. It is also leaning on its own team in Washington to reach out to potentially sympathetic Republicans in the administration or in Congress who might be willing to help.”

“The pitch to Republicans, according to a person familiar with the matter: Don’t overreach, this is a private institution.”

Axios: Trump’s pressure campaign against universities hits a Harvard-sized snag.

David Ignatius: By saying ‘no’ to Trump, Harvard saves its soul.

Catherine Rampell: “President Donald Trump says he wants to reduce our trade deficit. Yet he’s destroying one of our winningest exports: higher education.”

“Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.”

President Trump floated the idea of revoking Harvard University’s tax exempt status, an escalation of the funding fight between the federal government and the Ivy League school.

Wall Street Journal: “The move came hours after the university refused to agree to the government’s demands to change its governance structure over campus antisemitism concerns.”

Cornell University joined litigation against the U.S. Department of Energy and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the Cornell Sun reports.

The plaintiffs of the case are alleging that proposed immediate cuts to indirect costs for University research grants are unlawful by violating federal regulations. 

“With billions of dollars in federal funding at risk, Harvard University officials on Monday rejected Trump administration demands to make sweeping changes to its governance, admissions and hiring practices,” the Washington Post reports.

“The school is the first to push back against the government’s efforts to force change at elite universities.”

“Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged,” the Washington Post reports.

“The finding, contained in a March memo that was described to The Washington Post, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for revoking Ozturk’s visa under an authority empowering the top U.S. diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the United States.”

“Two groups representing Harvard professors sued the Trump administration on Friday, saying that its threat to cut billions in federal funding for the university violates free speech and other First Amendment rights,” the New York Times reports.

“An immigration judge in Louisiana found on Friday that the Trump administration could deport Mahmoud Khalil, granting the government an early victory in its efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses,” the New York Times reports.