The Pentagon said Friday it is cutting ties with Harvard University, ending all military training programs, fellowships and certificates with the Ivy League institution.
The announcement marks the latest development in the Trump administration’s long standoff with Harvard over White House demands for reforms at the Ivy League school.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement Friday that Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services.”
“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping that the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said. “Instead, too many of our officers have come back to look too much like Harvard – heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that don’t improve our fighting ranks.”
In a separate post on X, Hegseth wrote, “Harvard is up; the War Department is not.”
Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, the Pentagon will discontinue professional military education at the graduate level, fellowships and certificate programs, the statement said. Staff currently attending classes at Harvard will be able to complete those courses.
Similar programs at other Ivy League universities will be evaluated in the coming weeks, Hegseth said.
Hegseth earned a master’s degree from Harvard but symbolically returned the diploma in a Fox News segment in 2022. A Pentagon social media account run by Hegseth’s office re-released the clip in which Hegseth, then a Fox News commentator, returned the diploma and wrote “Return to Sender” on it in marker.
The military offers its officers a variety of opportunities to obtain a graduate-level education at both military-run war colleges and civilian institutions such as Harvard.
In general, while opportunities to attend prestigious civilian schools offer less direct benefit to a service member’s military career than their civilian counterparts, they help make troops more attractive employers once they leave the military.
Harvard has long been the main target of President Donald Trump in his administration’s campaign to bring the nation’s most prestigious universities. His officials cut billions of dollars in federal research funding to Harvard and tried to block it from enrolling foreign students after the campus rejected a series of government requests last April.
The White House said it is punishing Harvard for tolerating anti-Jewish prejudice on campus. Harvard leaders argue they face illegal retaliation for failing to adopt the administration’s ideological views. Harvard sued the administration in a pair of lawsuits. A federal judge issued orders in Harvard’s favor in both cases. The administration is appealing.
Tensions had eased over the summer as Trump teased a deal he said was days away. It never materialized and on Monday the president dug deeper, demanding $1 billion from Harvard as part of any deal to restore federal funding. That’s double what he had asked for before.
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