President Trump’s proposed $500M deal would shift Harvard into an unprecedented role running trade schools in technical fields. The university has not confirmed the plan, and its legality remains unsettled.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said his administration is finalizing a $500 million settlement with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League institution to establish and operate a series of trade schools, a dramatic break from its centuries-old identity as a center of elite scholarship and research.
Trump described the initiative as a way to redirect higher education toward workforce needs, saying Harvard would run schools focused on artificial intelligence, engineering, and other technical training. The President called the settlement a resolution to months of disputes with the university. “Then their sins are forgiven,” he told reporters, without offering further detail on the governance structure or timeline of the proposed schools.
An unconventional role
Harvard’s role in running trade schools would be unprecedented for the 388-year-old university, whose reputation rests on academic prestige, professional schools in law and medicine, and global research output. While the university already manages advanced professional programs, the administration’s proposal would place it directly in the realm of blue-collar vocational training, a role rarely linked to the Ivy League.
A standoff behind the deal
The negotiations follow a long clash between the administration and Harvard. Earlier this year, the White House froze billions in research grants and threatened to curb federal contracts and international student access. A federal judge later struck down the funding freeze, ruling that it violated constitutional and administrative law principles.
Trump has also mentioned separate financial settlements with Columbia and Brown, although those arrangements involved monetary payments only and did not include operating trade schools.
Harvard’s silence and internal strain
University officials continue to contest federal findings that it was “deliberately indifferent” to campus antisemitism, calling the government’s process flawed. Meanwhile, Harvard is facing new financial pressure. The university has begun laying off staff and reorganizing administrative units to offset budget strain as it awaits the outcome of ongoing legal and policy disputes with Washington. Some previously frozen federal grants have been restored following the court ruling, but the university remains under fiscal review across several of its schools.
