Trump admin’s oops moment: Policy change letter to Harvard University was ‘mistake’

In yet another ‘oops’ moment for the Donald Trump's administration, the letter it shot to the Harvard University last Friday (April 11) demanding policy changes was sent by ‘mistake’, a new report has suggested.

The Trump administration's letter to Harvard demanded that the university make a series of policy changes in order to continue to receive federal funding. The letter sparked massive protests and a standoff between the Trump administration and the Harvard University.

A latest reported in the New York Times claimed that the April 11 letter sent by the officials was "unauthorised".

An official reportedly told Harvard that the letter from the White House’s task force on antisemitism should not have been sent and was “unauthorised."

The letter was sent by the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, Sean Keveney, who were briefed on the matter, sources told the New York Times. Keveney is a member of the antisemitism task force.

Keveney couldn’t be reached for comment, the paper said.

It was, however, unclear what prompted the letter to be sent last Friday.

"Its content was authentic," the three sources said, "but there were differing accounts inside the administration of how it had been mishandled".

"Some people at the White House believed it had been sent prematurely," according to the three people. Others in the administration thought it had been meant to be circulated among the task force members rather than sent to Harvard.

But the letter's timing was consequential.

The letter arrived when Harvard officials believed they could still avert a confrontation with US President Donald Trump, NYT reported.

It added that over the previous two weeks, Harvard and the task force had engaged in a dialogue. But the letter’s demands were so extreme that Harvard concluded that a deal would ultimately be impossible.

What did the letter to Harvard say?

The letter included a series of demands about hiring, admissions and curriculum, which started a legal battle between the university and the White House.

The letter disclosed on Friday details a series of records Harvard must produce within 30 days, such as the identities of parties involved in each of Harvard’s foreign gifts and a list of researchers, scholars, students, and faculty at Harvard since 2010 who are from or affiliated with foreign governments.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump complained that colleges and universities are “indoctrinating” their students with “radical left” ideas, rather than educating them.

And he has decided to start with the 388-year-old Harvard University, one of the world's most prestigious institutions of learning and the first college founded in the American colonies.

On Tuesday, he targeted Harvard University in a post on his social media site, questioning whether it should remain tax-exempt “if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Harvard University said it will not acquiesce to US President Donald Trump's demands, whether it continues to receive federal funding or not.

"No government - regardless of which party is in power - should dictate what private universities can teach," Harvard's president, Alan Garber, said in a statement posted on the university's website.

(With inputs from agencies)