The Trump administration freezes $2 billion in grants to Harvard University. El Salvador’s president won’t send a mistakenly deported man back to the U.S. And Pride events across the country are losing corporate sponsorships.
Here’s what to know today.
Trump administration freezes over $2 billion after Harvard refuses demands
A disagreement between the Trump administration and Harvard University culminated yesterday in the federal government announcing it is freezing more than $2 billion in grants to the Ivy League school after it said it would not comply with a list of 10 demands.
The administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism called out “the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges” and said $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in “multi-year contract value” would be frozen.
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Hours earlier, Harvard rejected demands that the Trump administration claims are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus. The actions included auditing viewpoints of the student body, the immediate shuttering of all DEI programs and initiatives in exchange for “merit-based” policies and restricting the acceptance of international students who are “hostile to the American values and institutions.”
University President Alan M. Garber said the demands were an attempt “to control the Harvard community” by policing the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff members. “It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner.”
The Trump administration has made similar demands of other colleges. Last month, Columbia University agreed to a list of nine demands after the administration had canceled $400 million in federal funding.
Trump admin backs El Salvador president’s refusal to return mistakenly deported man
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he wouldn’t return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the Trump administration mistakenly deported to his home country. “How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States?” Bukele said. “Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
Bukele’s comments came during an Oval Office meeting yesterday, where Trump backed Bukele and Cabinet members defended Abrego Garcia’s deportation to the notorious Salvadoran prison. Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that the president, not a court, conducts foreign policy. And Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “If they want to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane. That’s up for El Salvador if they want to return him.”
In a court filing later Monday, the administration cited Bukele’s comments in maintaining the U.S. doesn’t have the authority to get Abrego Garcia back. Read the full story here.
During the meeting with Bukele, Trump also floated the idea of deporting “homegrown criminals” who are U.S. citizens to the prison in El Salvador. Legal experts were quick to push back against the idea. The most common response: The government doesn’t have the authority to deport U.S. citizens.
More immigration news:
- An NBC News review found the government’s case against Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student slated for deportation, is reliant on unverified tabloid accounts.
- Trump administration officials are ramping up pressure on immigrants to “self deport” as deportations fall short of Trump’s mass deportation goals. But there are a few reasons for the lower numbers, like the drastic drop in border crossings.
- The IRS’s agreement to share with ICE certain tax information filed by undocumented immigrants could eliminate billions of dollars in tax revenue and cause far-reaching problems, even for citizens.
- A Columbia University student and U.S. permanent resident was detained during a naturalization interview in Vermont, his lawyer said.
Arson at Gov. Shapiro’s residence exposes security gaps
The man arrested for the attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive mansion in Harrisburg was charged yesterday with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated arson, burglary, terrorism and other counts, officials said. And had suspect Cody Balmer located Shapiro, “he would have beaten him with his hammer,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
Now, as authorities investigate how an intruder was able to jump over the perimeter fence, break into the home, set off Molotov cocktails and flee — only to turn himself in hours later — experts question the potential security gaps and breakdown in protocols that seemingly occurred. “From a professional security perspective, the fact that the individual was able to scale the fence and do what he did, that’s not security,” said Glenn Walp, the state police commissioner in the 1990s under Gov. Bob Casey.
But determining whether more security is necessary for top public officials, even amid a heightened political climate, can be complicated because it involves the use of taxpayer money.
Read All About It
- It’s Tax Day, but filers in at least eight states have been granted automatic extensions.
- NBC News senior reporter Brandy Zadrozny attended a three-day anti-vaccine summit in San Diego, where alternative treatments to autism were widely discussed and attendees cheered on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Here’s what she observed.
- Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys want prospective jurors at his upcoming federal trial to be questioned about their views on drugs and alcohol abuse, as well as sex and violence.
- Authorities said the man who was arrested after showing up at UnitedHealthcare’s campus in Minnesota with a gun was trying to get police’s attention.
- Connecticut star guard Paige Bueckers was selected No. 1 in the WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings.
Staff Pick: Pride sponsors are pulling back
The organizers of several premier Pride celebrations have lost funding from corporate sponsors this year, to the tune of $200,000 to $350,000 each. For some larger organizations — like those in New York City and San Francisco — the shortage makes up about 10% of their total Pride event budget, while for others, like St. Pete Pride in Florida, it could be about half.
Byron Green, the board president of St. Pete Pride, said some sponsors told him they’re concerned about President Donald Trump’s crackdown on DEI, while others have said they are preparing for a tumultuous economy.
In conversations with organizers across the country, some told me they are sympathetic to the companies’ concerns but they also feel abandoned while the Trump administration continues to target the LGBTQ community. “We will remember who stood by us and who didn’t,” said Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride. “When it was politically popular, they were lined up.”
— Jo Yurcaba, NBC Out reporter
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