NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Harvard sued US President Donald Trump’s administration Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision.

Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated campus anti-Semitism, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrolment of foreign students, but Harvard has refused to bow.

“This case involves the Government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard,” the Ivy League university said in a lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts federal court that named several other institutions targeted by Trump.

“The Government’s actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations,” said the complaint, which called Trump’s actions “arbitrary and capricious.”

Trump is furious at Harvard for rejecting government supervision of its admissions, hiring practices and political slant and last week ordered the freezing of US$2.2 billion in federal funding to the storied institution.

The lawsuit calls for the freezing of funds and conditions imposed on federal grants to be declared unlawful, as well as for the Trump administration to pay Harvard’s costs.

Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled “anti-Semitism” and a need to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.

The administration claims protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.

Many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time, with the Cambridge-based institution placing 23 students on probation and denying degrees to 12 others, according to protest organizers.

“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,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform last week.

“Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.”

– ‘Sweeping freeze’ –
Harvard President Alan Garber said that Trump’s administration had launched “numerous investigations” into the university’s operations.

Last week, Garber flatly refused to “negotiate over (Harvard’s) independence or its constitutional rights.”

Other top institutions, including Columbia University, have bowed to less sweeping demands from the Trump administration, which claims that the educational elite is too left-wing.

The Department of Homeland Security has also threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa-holders’ “illegal and violent activities.”

International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard’s enrollment this academic year, according to its website.

“Make no mistake: Harvard rejects anti-Semitism and discrimination in all of its forms and is actively making structural reforms to eradicate anti-Semitism on campus,” said Monday’s lawsuit.

“But rather than engage with Harvard regarding those ongoing efforts, the Government announced a sweeping freeze of funding for medical, scientific, technological, and other research that has nothing at all to do with anti-Semitism.”

Trump’s claims about diversity tap into long-standing conservative complaints that US university campuses are too liberal, shutting out right-wing voices and favoring minorities.

In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over the inner workings of the country’s oldest and wealthiest university — and one of the most respected educational and research institutions in the world.