The United States Department of Defense announced on Friday that it is severing all military education ties with Harvard University, ending graduate-level training, fellowships and certificate programs at the Ivy League institution. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that Harvard no longer meets the needs of what he referred to as the War Department, adding that the university is 'woke' while the military is not. The move marks a dramatic escalation in the ongoing standoff between the Trump administration and the nation's oldest university.
The Pentagon stated that beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, all graduate-level professional military education programs, fellowships and certificate programs at Harvard will be discontinued. Military personnel currently enrolled in Harvard courses will be permitted to complete their ongoing coursework, but no new enrollments will be accepted. Hegseth alleged that officers returning from Harvard had their heads filled with what he described as globalist and radical ideologies, claiming the university had fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence on campus.
The decision comes amid a broader confrontation between the White House and Harvard that has escalated over several months. The Trump administration previously froze billions of dollars in federal research funding to the university, citing allegations that the institution tolerated antisemitic harassment. President Trump then demanded $1 billion from Harvard as a condition for restoring federal funding, doubling his earlier demand. Harvard has firmly rejected these conditions, with university leaders characterizing the administration's actions as illegal retaliation for the institution's refusal to adopt the government's ideological views or accept unprecedented federal oversight of its academic programs.
Harvard has filed two separate lawsuits challenging the funding freeze, and a federal judge issued orders siding with the university in both cases. The Trump administration is currently appealing those rulings. The legal battle has drawn national attention as a test case for the limits of executive power over higher education. Hegseth, who symbolically returned his own Harvard master's degree diploma during a 2022 Fox News segment, has made confrontation with elite universities a central part of his public persona, and his Pentagon office recently highlighted that earlier gesture.
The Pentagon's actions against Harvard follow a pattern of the administration pressuring elite universities over allegations of campus antisemitism and ideological bias. Columbia University previously agreed to pay $200 million and Brown University committed $50 million to workforce development in order to have their federal funding restored. Harvard, however, has refused to negotiate under what it considers coercive terms, choosing instead to fight the administration in court. Hegseth indicated that similar evaluations of military education programs at other Ivy League institutions would proceed in the coming weeks, signaling that Harvard may not be the last university to face such action.
The confrontation raises fundamental questions about academic freedom, government funding of higher education and the relationship between the military and elite civilian institutions. Critics of the administration argue that using federal funding as leverage to impose ideological conformity on universities sets a dangerous precedent that could undermine the independence of American research institutions. Supporters counter that taxpayer-funded programs should reflect national priorities and that universities must be held accountable for the campus environment they foster. As both sides dig in, the dispute shows no signs of resolution, with Harvard preparing for a potentially prolonged legal and financial battle against the federal government.
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