Harvard Hit With $2 Billion Government Funding Freeze
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What happened with Harvard's funding?
He's offering a pitch of stability, of support for free trade. So he's coming to these countries at a time when they're looking for support.
It's Tuesday, April 15th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The Trump administration is freezing more than $2 billion in federal grant and contract funding for Harvard University after the school resisted demands to change its governance structure over campus anti-Semitism concerns. An administration task force had demanded Harvard enact a mask ban and DEI programs and change classroom instruction to, among other things, improve viewpoint diversity.
Why did the Trump administration freeze funding?
Harvard's president issued a letter yesterday rejecting those demands, leading the Trump administration to announce the funding freeze hours later. The government has couched the withholding of funding as an effort to uphold civil rights laws, while lawyers for Harvard say its demands violate the First Amendment and ignore due process.
What are the implications of the funding freeze for Harvard?
This month, Harvard issued $750 million in the bond market that it could use to free up cash flow should it be unable to reconcile with the task force. New filings by the Commerce Department show the Trump administration opened tariff investigations into pharmaceutical products and semiconductors on April 1st, potentially teeing up additional duties. Both investigations are broad and are being carried out under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to impose tariffs on goods deemed essential for national security. President Trump has indicated that around 25 percent tariffs on the sectors are forthcoming after he previously exempted some semiconductors and other electronic products from separate reciprocal tariffs.
Meanwhile, Asian auto stocks closed higher today after President Trump said he was considering short-term tariff exemptions to help car companies looking to move components manufacturing to the U.S.
How are automakers affected by tariff relief confusion?
I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies where they're They're switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico, and other places. And they need a little bit of time. because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time.
Trump didn't offer any specifics, potentially adding to confusion within the auto industry, which imports about 7.5 million vehicles into the U.S. each year. Journal Auto's reporter Ryan Felton says that when Trump enacted a 25% tariff on vehicle imports last month, he gave automakers some relief in the form of a U.S. content deduction.
What is China's approach to trade amid U.S. tariffs?
But the weeks on, industry executives remain puzzled over how to collect it on certain of the 20,000 to 30,000 parts in the average vehicle.
The way it would work is you basically just subtract the dollar amount or take the percentage of content that isn't from the United States and reduce the effective tariff rate that companies would pay on these cars. Basically, at this point, the Commerce Department hasn't yet set a process for declaring U.S. content in the cards that are being brought over. And then at that point, Commerce would give guidance to the Customs Department. And then only at that point could the company start kind of getting the lower effective tariff rate. So it could happen soon. It may not happen soon.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What happened with Harvard's funding?
0:55–1:43
2
Why did the Trump administration freeze funding?
1:43–2:03
3
What are the implications of the funding freeze for Harvard?
2:03–3:04
4
How are automakers affected by tariff relief confusion?
3:04–3:41
5
What is China's approach to trade amid U.S. tariffs?
3:41–8:34
6
What are the latest developments in the semiconductor sector?
8:34–13:01
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