Trump White House claims letter with demands was sent to Harvard 'by mistake' but still blames university

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump's White House, "by mistake," sent Harvard University a letter with a list of demands that ignited chaos, The New York Times reported.

As per the report, a senior Trump official told Harvard University that the letter it received from the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, Sean Keveney, on April 11, containing a list of demands, was sent in error. 

Donald Trump's White House sent Harvard a letter demanding reforms to its hiring and admissions processes

Notably, the letter contained a series of demands about the school’s hiring policies, admissions, and curriculum. They were so extreme that Harvard officials felt they had no other choice but to refuse.

While the content was authentic, some sources said it was sent prematurely, while others believed it had been intended for internal use only, per the NYT.

The letter instructed Harvard to implement reforms to governance and leadership, and its hiring and admissions processes, if the school wanted to continue receiving federal funding.

Moreover, it demanded that Harvard implement merit-based policies and cease all "preferences based on race, color, national origin, or proxies thereof."

It also demanded to prevent the admittance of international students "hostile to American values" and to discontinue all DEI programs.

Before Harvard received the letter, the university and the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force were engaged in discussions to avoid a confrontation.

Harvard decided to publicly refuse the "unprecedented" demands on April 14, leading Trump to freeze billions of dollars of its federal funding.

Soon after, Josh Gruenbaum, a lawyer at the General Services Administration, called one of the university’s lawyers and said that neither he nor Thomas Wheeler, acting general counsel for the Department of Education, had authorized the letter.

However, he later stated that the letter was authorized but had been sent prematurely, per the outlet.

He further contacted a lawyer for Columbia University to let them know the letter to Harvard had been unauthorized.

White House senior policy strategist says 'Harvard went on a victimhood campaign' over letter

White House senior policy strategist May Mailman told the NYT that Harvard’s response was excessive.

Mailman said, "It was malpractice on the side of Harvard’s lawyers not to pick up the phone and call the members of the antisemitism task force who they had been talking to for weeks."

"Instead, Harvard went on a victimhood campaign," she added.

Meanwhile, Harvard said that there were no signs the letter was anything less than legitimate and admin-approved, per the outlet.

Moreover, university officials mentioned in a statement on April 18 that the letter was "signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official, and was sent on April 11 as promised."

"Recipients of such correspondence from the US government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness," the statement added.

It further mentioned, "It remains unclear to us exactly what, among the government’s recent words and deeds, were mistakes or what the government actually meant to do and say."

Harvard concluded, "Even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences" on not only Harvard students and employees but also on "the standing of American higher education in the world."

Interestingly, the Trump administration has not yet withdrawn its demands or reversed its decision to freeze $2.2 billion in grants to the school, as per The Daily Beast.

Trump has also not backed off his threats to revoke the school's tax-exempt status.