Amid university protests, Trump calls Harvard 'a disgrace'

Hundreds of students, faculty and community members on a California campus booed on April 17 as speakers accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of undermining American universities, as he questioned whether Harvard and others deserve tax-exempt status.

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BERKELEY, California -

The protest on the University of California's Berkeley campus was among events dubbed "Rally for the Right to Learn!" planned across the country.

The administration has rebuked US universities over their handling of pro-Palestinian student protests that roiled campuses from Columbia in New York to Berkeley in 2024, following the 2023 Hamas-led attack inside Israel and the subsequent Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Mr Trump has called the protests anti-American and anti-Semitic and accused universities of peddling Marxism and "radical left" ideology.

On April 17, he called Harvard, an institution he criticised repeatedly this week, "a disgrace", and also criticised others.

Asked about reports the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was planning to remove Harvard's tax-exempt status, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House he did not think a final ruling had been made, and indicated other schools were under scrutiny.

Mr Trump had said in a social media post on April 15 that he was mulling over whether to seek to end Harvard's tax-exempt status if it continued pushing what he called "political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting 'Sickness?"