Universities under scanner in private talks with White House aide to avoid fallout like Harvard: Insider

WASHINGTON, DC: It looks like America’s top colleges are doing some serious damage control behind the scenes.

With the Trump administration turning up the heat on Harvard, university leaders have been working the back channels, trying to stay off the radar of a new task force that’s been aggressively targeting schools over how they handle antisemitism and campus protests. 

According to a source familiar with the matter, college and university officials have been holding private talks with May Mailman, a senior White House policy strategist, who works closely with Trump’s hardline advisor Stephen Miller. Their goal is reportedly to figure out exactly what signals they need to send to stay out of the administration’s crosshairs. 

The administration’s message is blunt. “The money simply cannot and will not flow unabated as it has been, and that the universities are incubators of discrimination, and the taxpayer cannot support that,” a White House official told CNN.

With dozens of other schools also under investigation, some university leaders have even made the trek to Washington, DC, with hopes of cutting a deal before things escalate further.

The search for a 'model school' deal 

The White House is reportedly on the hunt for a major deal that will be enough to illustrate President Donald Trump's crackdown without looking like he is waging war on higher education itself.

One source involved in the college response told CNN, “They want a name-brand university to make a deal like the law firms made a deal that covers not just antisemitism and protests, but DEI and intellectual diversity.”

The source added, “They want Trump to be able to stand up and say he made a deal with so-and-so – an Ivy League school, some sort of name-brand school that gives them cover so they can say, ‘We don’t want to destroy higher education.’”

But no one wants to be the first domino. “Nobody wants to be the first, but the financial pressures are getting real,” the source admitted.

The pressure is mounting, with federal funding already being slashed and visa policies for international students now uncertain. Still, the source noted that "the conversations are continuing.”

The administration is leaving the door open. “The president is always willing to make a deal that benefits America, and this has been true for any higher education institution willing to embrace common sense, stop violating the law, and commit to restoring civil rights and order on their campuses,” a White House official said.

But they’re not looking for hollow promises. “The administration is only willing to work with entities that operate in good faith and are not merely paying lip service without tangible actions. Many schools want to make a deal, and the president is willing to work with them."

Harvard University takes the heat while others watch from sidelines

Not everyone’s racing to the negotiation table. One board member at a major university already under scrutiny said their interactions with the administration have been “irregular,” but that the task force has repeatedly pushed the school’s leadership to come to DC.

Still, they’re not in a rush to do that. “There is very little enthusiasm for that,” the board member said. “We do not have any interest in being their ‘model school’ or whatever.” 

But they’re not itching for a fight either. “We feel very comfortable with the steps we’ve taken, and we don’t have any need to fight the administration, per se – unless they decide to mess with our core values. When it comes, we will be ready to fight them. But that doesn’t mean we need to provoke them," they added.

Some schools are getting help from political consultants, while Harvard is reportedly lawyering up and mobilizing its alumni army. 

It's worth noting that the feud with Harvard didn’t just start with Trump’s return to office. His allies have had the Ivy League school in their crosshairs since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, citing a need to crack down on campus antisemitism.

The effort is spearheaded by the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which includes former Fox News personality and civil rights lawyer-turned–DOJ official Leo Terrell. The group meets weekly and is in constant communication about which school to target next. Alongside Terrell are Miller and Mailman. 

Of course, they’ve been pleased with some early wins. Schools that dismantled DEI programs and cracked down on protests have gotten nods of approval.

Terrell recently warned on Fox News, “Expect massive lawsuits against UC system. … On the East Coast, on the West Coast, in the Midwest, expect hate crime charges filed by the federal government. Expect Title VII lawsuits against those individuals who are not being protected simply because they’re Jewish.”

In response, University of California spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said the school “abhors antisemitism and is diligently working to address, counter, and eradicate it in all its forms across the system. We have been, and plan to continue, cooperating with the Administration.” 

Donald Trump administration's investigation into top universities

According to the White House, Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell, and the University of Michigan are all under the microscope.

A February Justice Department press release also listed schools like George Washington University, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UC Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, and USC as campuses where antisemitic incidents have been flagged since October 2023. 

For now, officials say they haven’t needed to show up on campus because so many university leaders have already come to them in DC.

As for how funding decisions get made, a White House official explained that investigations begin with complaints. If violations of federal law are found—be it Title IV, VI, IX, XI, or XII—the government can “pause funding and wait for a resolution.”

But in more serious cases like Harvard, “there could just be a blanket removal of all federal funds because of their lack of cooperation in an investigation or their blatant disregard for their violations to federal law and their unwillingness to change policy.”

CNN found that more than 70 schools are under active Title VI investigations as of now. While most of those began during the Biden era, they’re now a part of Trump’s education crackdown.

The fight with Harvard is still underway. Beyond legal skirmishes, the administration has launched a new investigation into Harvard’s foreign funding, using a rule under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said, “As standard practice, Harvard has filed Section 117 reports for decades as part of its ongoing compliance with the law… Harvard’s reports include information on gifts and contracts from foreign sources exceeding $250K annually.”

But things might get even more painful for the university. A tax change in Trump’s new “big, beautiful bill” could hike taxes on endowments like Harvard’s from 1.4% to as much as 21%. Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News, “That’s something that the American public could wrap its head around." 

How far will Donald Trump take this?

Even White House insiders aren't sure how long all this will last. “If you go after Harvard, how hard can you keep going? The universities are being played like a yo-yo for weeks and weeks and weeks. My guess is, at some point, the White House will lose interest in that. Once you’ve taken down Harvard, where are you going to go – Emory? They’re just as conscious of the brands as anybody else,” the source said.

“What’s going to happen to Harvard or Columbia? Record applicants, record yield. I would bet you that if you talked to MAGA voters at Charlotte Country Day School or The Westminster Schools, they may have voted for Trump, but are they turning away from the Ivy League? Hell no. The schools are having record demand," they added.

Still, McMahon said there’s a chance to cool things down. “We really hope that we will be back at the table, negotiating, talking about the things that are good for Harvard and for the students that are on campus," she added.

But Terrell is not backing down. “We are going to go after them where it hurts them financially, and there’s numerous ways – I hope you can read between the lines – there’s numerous ways to hurt them financially,” he said on Fox News.

When asked when the crackdown might end, he offered a rather blunt response. “We can’t speculate. We have to bring these universities to their knees," Terrell said.

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