Pentagon ends academic ties with Harvard over its ‘woke ideology

The US Department of Defense is severing its academic connections to Harvard University, with Secretary Pete Hegseth accusing the oldest US university of being a centre of “hate-America activism”.

In a video posted on X, Hegseth announced the Pentagon would end graduate-level military training, fellowships and certificate programs with the Ivy League institution.

Harvard has become a “factory for woke ideology and a breeding ground for anti-American radicals” that does not align with the department’s focus on “lethality” and “deterrence”, he said.

For months, The Trump administration has threatened to cut funds and take other measures against Harvard, alleging it is “woke” and anti-Semitic.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced he will be seeking $1bn (£730m) in damages from Harvard, after the New York Times reported his administration had to backtrack from its demand for a $200m payment in negotiations with the university. Trump accuses the university of “feeding a lot of nonsense” to the news outlet.

In his announcement, posted late on Friday, Hegseth said he was considering ending defence department associations with other top-level schools, but primarily focused on Harvard, giving a history of its long relationship with the US military that stretched back to the first American president, George Washington.

“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said.

“Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks,” he added.

He called Harvard “one of the red-hot centres of hate-America activism”.

The Pentagon will end its academic relationship with the school in the fall, giving any military personnel currently attending classes time to finish their studies , the department said.

Along with criticising the university’s teaching, Hegseth said the Pentagon was also cutting off Harvard because some of its research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party. Between 2010 and 2025, Harvard received $560 million in gifts and contracts from Chinese foundations, private donors, and government entities, according to the New York Times.

Hegseth also accused the university of encouraging a “campus environment that celebrated Hamas” and “allowed attacks on Jews”. The Trump administration has repeatedly blasted Harvard over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, which happened on many college campuses in the months after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

Hegseth received a Master of Public Policy from Harvard’s prestigious Kennedy School, which is frequently attended by federal employees, including members of the military, in 2013. In 2022, he returned his diploma in protest of the university’s classes on critical race theory.

The administration has previously attempted to freeze federal funding to Harvard threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status, and challenged its ability to enrol international students, although some of its measures have been stopped by the courts.

By BBC News