WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday his administration would seek $1 billion in damages from Harvard University after a New York Times report said the college had won some concessions in ongoing settlement negotiations with the government.
"We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump officials have accused Harvard and other colleges of promoting so-called "woke" ideology while failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests, filing legal complaints and demanding exorbitant payouts. Critics have called it a pressure campaign by the administration on liberal universities.
Fellow Ivy League institution Columbia University agreed to pay the Trump administration $200 million last summer and pledged to obey rules that bar it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring.
But the New York Times earlier on Monday reported Trump had dropped his administration's demands for a settlement payout of $200 million from Harvard, after protracted talks.
Trump told reporters last September that negotiations were close to reaching a $500 million settlement with Harvard, with part of the deal including the opening of trade schools.
"They wanted to do a convoluted job training concept, but it was turned down in that it was wholly inadequate and would not have been, in our opinion, successful," Trump said in his post late Monday evening.
"It was merely a way of Harvard getting out of a large cash settlement of more than 500 Million Dollars, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed," he added, without specifying what laws Harvard has allegedly broken.
The University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League institution, also bowed to Trump administration concerns last year, announcing it would ban transgender women from participating in women's sports.