Harvard University said on Wednesday that it won’t accept federal funds allocated to the school through the government’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund after President Trump demanded that the institution “pay back the money.” The university said it never applied for the program and “has decided not to seek or accept the funds allocated to it by statute.” Harvard, which was criticized by Donald Trump at a Tuesday press conference at which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was discussing large businesses, such as Shake Shack, apparently abusing the Paycheck Protection Program, previously said it never received or sought funds through the program. While Mnuchin was discussing the effort to retrieve the forgivable loans, Trump interjected to say Harvard will also “pay back the money,” adding, “When I saw Harvard, one of the largest endowments anywhere in the country, maybe the world, and they are going to pay back that money.” Harvard said: “President Trump is right that it would not have been appropriate for our institution to receive funds that were designated for struggling small businesses.”
The university said it had received $8.6 million in funding under a separate program specifically targeted at higher-education institutions that grants universities assistance based on a formula that looks at overall enrollment and the number of students receiving federal financial aid. Yale got $6.8 million, the University of Chicago got $6.2 million, and Stanford University took nearly $7.4 million from that program. An undeterred Trump doubled down, posting on Twitter on Tuesday that Harvard should “give back the money now.”
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