President Donald Trump said Monday night that his administration is pursuing a $1 billion damages claim against Harvard University, intensifying a long-running dispute over federal funding and campus policies.
“We are now seeking One Billion Dollars in damages, and want nothing further to do, into the future, with Harvard University,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The announcement comes as the administration continues to challenge a December court ruling that found it acted unlawfully when it cut off more than $2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, barring further attempts to halt the university’s research funding.
Harvard has been at the center of a broader effort by the Trump administration to use federal dollars as leverage to compel changes at colleges and universities nationwide, which Trump has argued are dominated by antisemitic sentiment and “radical left” thinking.
Trump previously said the White House had been nearing an agreement with Harvard that would have required the university to pay $500 million, following extended negotiations focused on institutional policies.
Administration officials have repeatedly accused Harvard and other elite schools of advancing what they describe as “woke” ideology while failing to adequately safeguard Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations, backing those claims with legal filings and demands for substantial financial settlements.
Earlier Monday, The New York Times reported that Trump had withdrawn a demand for a $200 million settlement payment from Harvard after lengthy talks between the sides.
Speaking to reporters last September, Trump said discussions were approaching a $500 million settlement, which would have included provisions for opening trade schools as part of the agreement.
“They wanted to do a convoluted job training concept, but it was turned down in that it was wholly inadequate and would not have been, in our opinion, successful,” Trump said in his post late Monday evening.
“It was merely a way of Harvard getting out of a large cash settlement of more than 500 Million Dollars, a number that should be much higher for the serious and heinous illegalities that they have committed,” he added, without identifying which laws he believes the university violated.
“This should be a Criminal, not Civil, event,” he added, without detailing the legal grounds for criminal charges or the specific actions he contends would justify them.
{Matzav.com}Nikki Haley criticized renewed diplomatic engagement with Iran on Monday, voicing opposition as Washington and Tehran move toward talks focused on Iran’s nuclear program.
In a message posted on social media, the former US ambassador to the United Nations argued that negotiations with Tehran are fundamentally flawed. “You can’t make a deal with a regime that lies about its nuclear production, oppresses its people, and spreads terror around the world. Iran can’t be trusted,” Haley wrote.
Her remarks came after reports indicated that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are scheduled to meet Friday in Istanbul to explore the possibility of a nuclear agreement.
President Donald Trump has publicly urged Iran to come to terms with the United States over its nuclear activities, while also making clear that military action remains an option if diplomacy fails.
Addressing reporters on Monday, Trump spoke about the ongoing discussions and the US posture toward Iran, saying, “We have big ships heading to Iran right now. The biggest and the best. We have talks going on with Iran, we will see how it all works out.”
He added further comments emphasizing uncertainty about the administration’s next steps. “I can’t tell you what I’m going to do, because right now we have a tremendous force going there, just like we did in Venezuela – even bigger. And they’ll be there soon,” continued Trump.
Trump went on to express a preference for a diplomatic resolution while warning of consequences if negotiations collapse. “I’d like to see a deal negotiated. I don’t know that that’s going to happen. But if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. I’d be very foolish if I were to tell you. But right now we’re talking to them. We’re talking to Iran. And if we could work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things will happen.”
Haley’s position echoed comments made a day earlier by Senator Lindsey Graham, who also rejected the idea of striking a deal with Iran and suggested that lasting stability in the region would require the collapse of the current Iranian leadership.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Graham argued that removing Iran’s rulers would have a transformative effect on the region. “The biggest thing you could possibly do to the Middle East is take this regime down, and they’re as weak as they’ve ever been since 1979,” he said.
Graham concluded by directly urging presidential action, adding, “Mr. President, you can do it, I hope you will do it,” he added.
{Matzav.com}
Channel 12 News chief political analyst Amit Segal weighed in on a letter sent by families of Israeli hostages to Gal Hirsch, in which they called for his resignation and accused him of intimidating them while advancing the Prime Minister’s political agenda.
In his remarks, Segal referred to Hirsch’s assertion that the families’ messaging and that of Hamas had effectively aligned. “Gal Hirsch says they and Hamas essentially spoke in the same voice. We all know the videos Hamas released every Saturday included messages that were almost identical to what was said at the protests – for example, that Netanyahu is delaying a deal, that now is the time to stop the war, and that military pressure endangers the hostages’ lives. Those who later returned told us what they were instructed to say and what the objective was,” Segal said.
Segal went on to explain that such overlap in messaging raises difficult questions in the political arena. “There’s a rule in politics – when two enemies run the same campaign, one of them is wrong. I can accept the claim that we and Hamas said the same thing, but that we were right – because morally, Israel benefits from returning all the hostages. But don’t gaslight us and say it didn’t happen. Say that it was important on a moral level. Don’t say Hamas said one thing and we said the opposite – because that’s not what happened.”
He further stressed that his criticism was not directed at the act of protesting itself, noting the emotional impact those demonstrations had on captives. “There’s a claim often made in interviews with returning hostages, who said the protests warmed their hearts – and that is absolutely true. The point was never to say that protests are bad,” Segal clarified.
However, Segal argued that the broader narrative promoted at the time was counterproductive. “But the narrative that claimed there is only one way to bring the hostages back – by surrendering, withdrawing, ending the war, all of them now and at any price – that was a serious mistake. It did not help the effort to bring the hostages home,” he concluded.
{Matzav.com}
Jews in New York City were the targets of 31 suspected hate crimes last month — roughly one incident per day — according to new figures released Monday by the New York City Police Department.
Those incidents represented 54 percent of the 58 total bias crimes reported citywide in January, making antisemitic offenses the largest single category during the month.
The January tally reflected a 182 percent increase compared with the same month last year, though it was lower than the 40 antisemitic incidents recorded in December. January also marked the first full month of the city’s new administration under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
City officials noted that antisemitic crime levels tend to rise and fall based on a range of factors, including protest activity and seasonal conditions.
In addition to crimes targeting Jews, police recorded one incident motivated by age bias, five against Asians, two against Black individuals, two related to gender, one targeting Hispanic people, seven against Muslims, three aimed at other religious groups, five based on sexual orientation, and one targeting white people.
Authorities cautioned that the statistics are preliminary and may be revised following investigations. In some cases, incidents initially believed to be hate crimes are later determined to have been motivated by other factors. Convictions in hate crime cases also remain relatively uncommon.
Hate crimes carry harsher penalties than non-bias offenses because they are viewed as attacks on an entire community rather than a single individual.
At the same time, the NYPD reported that major crimes — including murder, robbery, shootings, and felony assaults — declined overall last month, continuing a broader downward trend in violent crime across the city.
Jews continue to be targeted in New York City at higher rates than any other group. In 2025, police recorded 330 antisemitic incidents, accounting for 57 percent of the 576 total hate crimes reported citywide, according to NYPD data.
Jewish security officials and experts on hate crimes have also warned that many antisemitic incidents likely go unreported and never reach law enforcement statistics.
Among the January cases, two teenagers were charged with spray-painting 73 swastikas on a playground used by Jewish children; a rabbi was assaulted on Holocaust Remembrance Day; and a driver rammed his vehicle into Chabad’s 770.
In response to rising antisemitism, members of the New York City Council announced last week the creation of a new Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and introduced legislation aimed at curbing hate crimes.
{Matzav.com}
