Trump Administration Opens Two New Investigations Into Harvard Over Discrimination and Antisemitism

The Trump administration has escalated its campaign against Harvard University by launching two fresh federal investigations, intensifying an already fierce standoff between the White House and one of America's most prestigious academic institutions.

The U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office announced the probes, which will examine whether Harvard continues to use race-based preferences in admissions following the Supreme Court's landmark 2023 ruling that effectively ended affirmative action. A second investigation targets allegations of antisemitism on Harvard's campus, an issue that has become a central flashpoint in the administration's broader crackdown on elite universities.

Harvard firmly denied any wrongdoing, with a spokesperson stating the university remains fully compliant with federal admissions law and is deeply committed to combating antisemitism. The school characterized the new probes as retaliatory moves aimed at pressuring Harvard to abandon its institutional independence and constitutional rights.

This latest action adds to a growing pile of legal confrontations. The administration filed two separate lawsuits against Harvard earlier this year — one seeking billions of dollars over alleged failures to protect Jewish students, and another demanding compliance with a federal admissions data investigation. Privacy advocates and former Biden-era officials have warned that such data collection could be weaponized against civil rights protections.

Harvard is not alone in facing federal pressure. Columbia University recently reached a settlement with the Trump administration, agreeing to pay over $200 million — an arrangement that academic experts have criticized as setting a troubling "pay-to-play" precedent for higher education institutions.

Critics also note that while the administration has aggressively pursued antisemitism-related probes, it has not launched comparable investigations into Islamophobia or anti-Palestinian discrimination on college campuses, raising concerns about selective enforcement and political motivation behind the federal scrutiny.