Trump caves on key demand in talks for strongarmed 'deal' with Harvard

The Trump administration is backing down from one of its key demands in negotiations with Harvard University to end investigations into the school's practices and bans on grant funding — and Harvard, emboldened by the president's cratering poll numbers, appears increasingly hostile to making a deal at all, reported The New York Times on Monday.

"President Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university, according to four people briefed on the matter," said the report.

This was a major obstacle to negotiations for weeks. Harvard had committed as part of a potential agreement to spend $500 million in trade education around the country, but the administration wanted $200 million of that to go to civil fines directly to the government — which Harvard refused, and which at one point felt they had been deceived into accepting.

Moreover, noted the report, with Trump's approval numbers in significantly worse shape now than back when the talks with Harvard began, university officials are less eager to do any sort of deal.

"A deal with Harvard would hand the president a victory at a difficult time in his presidency," said the report. "But those same factors could also torpedo a deal, as some Harvard leaders now consider the risk of backlash even higher if they are seen as having any hand in easing the pressure on Mr. Trump, according to one person familiar with their thinking." Despite this, the report noted, other sources think some sort of deal will happen eventually, just to restore the grant funding the administration cut off.

“Negotiations with Harvard are ongoing,” Education Department chief of staff Madi Biedermann told The Times. “The administration’s goal with Harvard, as with all its work on higher education, is to ensure campuses properly enforce civil rights laws, students are learning in an environment free from harassment and intimidation and campuses once again prioritize truth-seeking and merit.”

The Trump administration has long touted its plan to eliminate the Department of Education — however, in practice they are still operating it, but flipping its civil rights functions around to try to coerce schools to adopt pro-administration policy.