Worried About Foreign Influence? Start With Trump, Not Harvard

In recent years, Harvard’s critics have placed the University under a microscope.

Their latest target? Foreign funding. Recent disclosures revealed that between January 2020 and October 2024, Harvard received over $151 million from foreign governments.

Facing down congressional proposals to stem the flow of international contributions, the University should not be bowed into rejecting foreign funding indiscriminately.

Harvard is in the midst of a financial squeeze that shows no signs of abating. Last year — in the aftermath of the University’s leadership crisis — philanthropic donations declined sharply. Now, just months into the second Trump administration, the White House has already brandished threats to cut millions in federal funding for operations and research.

With the possibility of a punitive endowment tax lurking on the horizon, Harvard can hardly afford to dismiss foreign donations out of hand — nor should it. Rather, as we’ve argued before, donations from abroad — like all contributions — should be assessed not by their origin, but by their terms.

The University ought to remain open to a wide range of funding sources as long as they don’t come with unacceptable strings attached. In other words, the positive benefits of donations must be weighed against donors’ ulterior motives.

This dilemma isn’t new, nor is it unique to foreign contributions. Every major donor, foreign or domestic, conservative billionaire or national government, carries a level of influence. The question, then, isn’t whether Harvard should accept money from foreign governments, but whether the funds they offer sufficiently advance our academic mission without granting undue sway over it.

Adjudicating these conundrums isn’t easy. But thankfully investigative efforts so far — including a recent review from University lawyers of donations from the Middle East and a 2020 Department of Education report — haven’t uncovered much in the way of shocking malfeasance.

We’re glad that these investigations haven’t brought to light alarming evidence of undue foreign meddling at our University. But if Congress is truly concerned about outside influence in American institutions, it should turn its sights from University Hall to the White House.

By the end of his presidency, Donald Trump and his family amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from foreign governments — including Saudi Arabia — which he failed to disclose, according to a house oversight report. All the while, many of those very states were jockeying for US government support.

The hypocrisy is glaring. As lawmakers obsess over Harvard’s finances, they have largely ignored the far more direct — and troubling — examples of foreign influence at the highest levels of government.

We appreciate Republicans’ careful eye towards Harvard’s foreign donations. We hope they apply the same level of scrutiny to money funneling towards the nation’s highest office.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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