That affluence makes it well situated to weather the strongest blow yet when a task force under President Donald Trump announced it would freeze US$2.2 billion in federal money after the school refused to agree to a list of government demands.

The demands - prompted by widespread pro-Palestinian student protests on US campuses in 2024, which the administration has deemed anti-semitic - included reforming the university’s governance; ending diversity, equity and inclusion programmes; changes to its admissions and hiring; and curbing the “power” of certain students, faculty and administrators because of their ideological views.

In his response to the demands, Harvard University president Alan Garber declared that the school would not “surrender its independence or constitutional rights”, which then triggered the US$2.2 billion freeze. 

President Trump on April 15 then

threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status, yet another painful financial risk to the school.

“If there’s ever been an emergency, this is an emergency,” said Sandy Baum, a higher education expert and non-resident senior fellow at the Urban Institute. “They could certainly take more money from their endowment, at least temporarily. But that doesn’t mean they could fund the huge amount of research - and replace the large amount of money they’re getting from the federal government.”