Linda McMahon says Harvard and Columbia making ‘progress’ to meet Trump’s demands to stop antisemitism

Harvard has denied Trump demands and sued to protect billions in paused funding, while Columbia has largely agreed to administration requests on antisemitism

Trump’s Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, praised the administration for pushing Harvard and Columbia University to make “progress” on tackling campus antisemitism.

"I have seen progress. And you know why I think we’re seeing progress? Because we are putting these measures in place, and we’re saying we’re putting teeth behind what we’re looking at," McMahon told NBC News.

“They talk a lot about it, but I think we really started to see a lot of their actions once we were taking action," McMahon added.

The comments come as the administration continues its unprecedented campaign to force changes at both universities, on allegations that they didn’t do enough to combat campus antisemitism during contentious protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.

In April, the administration froze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard after it refused to comply with a series of sweeping on-campus changes the administration demanded, prompting the university to sue.

Trump administration Education Secretary Linda McMahon argues threats to funding and international student enrollment have caused ‘progress’ in fighting antisemitism at Harvard and Columbia (AP)

The Trump administration also imperiled $400 million to Columbia in March, though the New York university has taken a different tack than its Massachusetts peer in the Ivy League, largely agreeing to administration demands to restore the funds.

Both schools were making concerted efforts to address antisemitism on campus before Trump took office.

Columbia created an antisemitism task force in 2023, while Harvard followed suit in 2024, and the schools have worked to reform student training practices, disciplinary policies, and protest rules prior to Trump’s crackdown on the universities beginning.

Harvard also settled a major antisemitism suit from students and adopted a new campus definition of antisemitism in January, right as Trump took office.

However, once the administration was underway, the universities have taken sharply divergent approaches, though neither has spared the Ivy League universities from scrutiny from the administration.

In April, the administration demanded that Harvard institute unprecedented changes, including ending all diversity policies, cooperating with federal law enforcement, and subjecting itself to a “viewpoint diversity” audit, among other reforms.

The university declined, and soon after the administration froze the $2.2 billion in grants and contracts, prompting Harvard to sue.

Since then, the administration has continued to ratchet up pressure on Harvard, attempting to strip its ability to enroll international students and threatening to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

In March, Columbia largely acceded to the administration’s requests, instituting changes like empowering a new campus police force to arrest students, committing to hiring faculty with greater “intellectual diversity,” partially banning face masks at protests, and restructuring Middle East-focused university departments.

Nonetheless, on Wednesday, the Department of Education claimed that Columbia was “in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws and therefore fails to meet the standards for accreditation.”

Harvard President Alan Garber has accused the administration of trying to unconstitutionally interfere with the university’s affairs and choosing punishments that have little to do with tackling antisemitism.

Columbia University agreed to major campus reforms as part of funding negotiations, but continues to face scrutiny from Trump administration over alleged antisemitism (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“The sanctions that the government chose to impose against us — having to do with cutting off federal support at Harvard — those are not sanctions that will particularly aid us in the fight against antisemitism,” Garber told alumni in April.

The administration has at times struggled to explain its own education policies.

During a hearing in the House on Wednesday, McMahon appeared unable to answer questions about whether teaching students about the Tulsa race massacre or the fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election would amount to “illegal DEI,” a practice the administration says should bar schools from receiving federal funds.

When asked about whether the administration’s push to force universities to hire more ideologically diverse staff meant Harvard had to hire people like Holocaust deniers, McMahon responded and said, “I believe that there should be diversity of viewpoints relative to teachings and opinions on campuses.”

Officials have also spoken openly about their desire to police student opinion and political activity.

“It’s very important that we are making sure that the students who are coming in and being on these campuses aren’t activists, that they’re not causing these activities,” McMahon added in her NBC News interview.

This spring, the administration briefly revoked, then reinstated, legal status for thousands of internationals on student visas in the U.S.