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Linda McMahon blasts Harvard in scathing letter telling elite university it will no longer get federal grants
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a scathing letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber on Monday, not only blasting the Massachusetts Ivy League school’s handling of antisemitism on campus but also advising school officials to refrain from applying for future federal grants because they will not «be provided.»
In her no-holds-barred letter, McMahon told Garber that the federal government has a «sacred responsibility» to be an important steward of American taxpayer funds, adding that the school has amassed a largely tax-free $53.2 billion endowment and receives billions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year.
«Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right,» she wrote. «Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?»
She also said the university has «made a mockery» of the higher education system in the U.S., inviting foreign students to its campuses who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the U.S.
TRUMP SAYS HE’LL REVOKE HARVARD’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent a scathing letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber, advising him to not apply for federal grants because they will not be provided. (Getty Images)
McMahon slammed the school for adopting an «embarrassing» remedial math program for undergraduates, questioning why a school that’s so difficult to get admitted to has to teach low-level mathematics.
She called Harvard out for being embroiled in plagiarism scandals and lambasted the school for allowing Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review to engage in «ugly racism.»
McMahon blasted Harvard for hiring former Mayors Bill de Blasio of New York City and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago to teach «leadership» at its School of Public Health.
«This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea,» she said.
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«The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard’s consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided,» McMahon later wrote. «Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni.
«You have an approximately $53 billion head start, much of which was made possible by the fact that you are living within the walls of, and benefiting from, the prosperity secured by the United States of America and its free-market system you teach your students to despise,» she added.
In closing, McMahon reminded Garber that the Trump administration had been willing to maintain federal funding to Harvard as long as the school complied with federal law to protect and promote student welfare and stop racial preferencing.
HARVARD PRESIDENT APOLOGIZES FOR FAILURE TO ADDRESS ANTISEMITISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA AFTER NEW REPORTS RELEASED
Harvard President Alan Garber (Screenshot/NBC)
«The proposed common-sense reforms – which the Administration remains committed to – include a return to merit-based admissions and hiring, an end to unlawful programs that promote crude identity stereotypes, disciplinary reform and consistent accountability, including for student groups, cooperation with Law Enforcement, and reporting compliance with the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal Agencies,» McMahon said. «The Administration’s priorities have not changed, and today’s letter marks the end of new grants for the university.»
Harvard confirmed to Fox News Digital that it received a letter from the administration on Monday.
«Today, we received another letter from the administration doubling down on demands that would impose unprecedented and improper control over Harvard University and would have chilling implications for higher education,» a Harvard spokesperson said. «Today’s letter makes new threats to illegally withhold funding for lifesaving research and innovation in retaliation against Harvard for filing its lawsuit on April 21.
«Harvard will continue to comply with the law, promote and encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism in our community. Harvard will also continue to defend against illegal government overreach aimed at stifling research and innovation that make Americans safer and more secure,» the spokesperson continued.
TRUMP BRANDS HARVARD ‘ANTISEMITIC’ AND A ‘THREAT TO DEMOCRACY’ DURING FUNDING BATTLE
President Donald Trump holds an executive order relating to education in the Oval Office on April 23, 2025. (AP NEWSROOM)
McMahon’s letter comes just days after President Donald Trump declared that his administration was going to be taking away Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
Trump made the announcement after Fox News reported that his administration asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status. The Ivy League school’s failure to address antisemitism on campus is grounds for losing its 501(c)(3) status, sources said at the time.
Trump argued in mid-April that Harvard had «lost its way» and didn’t deserve federal funding.
«Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders,’» Trump wrote on Truth Social. «Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States Congress.»
Harvard has become a target of Trump’s broader crackdown on universities, much of which is in response to last year’s anti-Israel unrest that erupted on campuses across the country.
On April 11, the Trump administration sent a letter to Garber and Harvard Corporation Lead Member Penny Pritzker outlining the institution’s failures and a list of demands from the White House. In the letter, the administration accused Harvard of failing to uphold civil rights laws and to foster an «environment that produces intellectual creativity.»
The Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding if Harvard did not reform governance and leadership as well as its hiring and admissions practices by August 2025. The letter emphasized the need for Harvard to change its international admissions process to avoid admitting students who are «hostile» to American values or support terrorism or antisemitism.
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Harvard refused to comply with the demands, with Garber saying that «no government… should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.»
The Trump administration then froze $2.2 billion in funding to Harvard and is reportedly looking to slash another billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The university later filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its «unlawful» freezing of funds.
Fox News’ Greg Norman, Andrea Margolis, Alexis McAdams and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
Donald Trump,Massachusetts,College,Dept of Education
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Iran is deploying explosive-laden drone boats disguised as wooden fishing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a defense expert has warned — a move that signals a new phase of hybrid maritime warfare in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
Cameron Chell, CEO of drone technology firm Draganfly, spoke after the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed that a Marshall Islands–flagged oil tanker was struck March 1 by an Iranian unmanned surface vehicle north of Muscat, Oman.
«UKMTO has received confirmation that the vessel was attacked by an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV), and that the crew has been evacuated to shore,» UKMTO said in a threat assessment.
Reports also indicated that two additional oil tankers were hit March 11 by remote-controlled explosive boats in the Gulf, as Iran intensified attacks on foreign vessels following the start of the U.S. Operation Epic Fury against the regime on Feb. 28.
FIRES RAGE AT IRAN’S BANDAR ABBAS NAVAL HEADQUARTERS, STRAIT OF HORMUZ TRAFFIC STALLED
Persian Gulf shipping dips as Trump positions military against Iran. ( Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The use of so-called «suicide skiffs» represents a growing asymmetric threat in the narrow, 21-mile-wide Strait, Chell warned, while highlighting the technological capabilities behind these attacks.
«The Iranians probably have use of radio remote control, line of sight, frequency hopping, or encrypted radio communication between the skiffs and the Hormuz shoreline,» Chell told Fox News Digital.
«These can be jammed and tracked, but when there’s 50 of these boats, it’s hard to try to find them all along this shoreline or to find a 20-foot wooden fishing boat that is laden with explosives.
«They can have one person controlling a swarm of 10 boats,» he said before describing how there «could also be autonomous swarming where they might have 10 boats that can act with a large level of independence, because they’re pre-programmed.»
«The boats would be used to ram into targets and explode,» Chell clarified.
EX-NAVY SEAL WARNS WITHDRAWING FROM IRAN NOW WOULD HAND ‘VICTORY’ TO REGIME
Naval units from Iran and Russia simulate the rescue of a hijacked vessel during joint drills at the Port of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan, Iran, on Feb. 19, 2026. (Iranian Army/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Chell’s comments followed a March 12 Reuters report stating that six vessels had been attacked in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.
Sources said that Iran had also deployed about a dozen mines, complicating efforts to maintain any traffic through the critical waterway.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Sky News Thursday that the U.S. Navy, potentially alongside an international coalition, would escort ships when militarily feasible.
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey also said discussions were underway with European counterparts stressing the global economic stakes tied to the strait. Chell, however, questioned current defensive readiness.
«The drone defense fleets that the U.S. Navy would not have been set up to take these suicide skiffs out,» Chell said.
«The U.S. would be using manned aircraft in order to take them out, which are fantastic at taking out a large target, but inefficient in taking out 50 boats at one time that are an average of 25 or 30 feet in size, laden with explosives.
IRAN’S DRONE SWARMS CHALLENGE US AIR DEFENSES AS TROOPS IN MIDDLE EAST FACE RISING THREATS
A screenshot of a marine traffic terminal showing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on March 4, 2026. (Kpler/Marine Traffic)
«Given the Strait’s geography, it would require patrolling by many aircraft and would require pervasive surveillance over the area, a rapid response to any activity that’s happening,» he said.
As Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to keep the Strait closed as leverage against the U.S. and Israel, oil prices continue to surge, with Chell also highlighting the geographic advantage Iran holds.
«The geographic layout of the Strait lends itself very well to relatively unsophisticated suicide skiffs, unmanned surface vehicles or USVs,» he warned before describing how the area «lends itself to this low-cost, automatic, asymmetric warfare.»
«The Iranians can disguise them as fishing boats and can be anywhere from 12 to 30 feet, and a boat could be of any description,» Chell said.
«These skiffs are equipped with basic remote control capabilities that may or may not be using GPS waypoints or manual remote control.»
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«The skiffs are not autonomous, because the distance across the Strait is so short, and it’s very flat across this waterway, the communication signal could be carried for quite some time via a line of sight,» he added.
«They could literally have hundreds out there at a time, because they’re also so inexpensive to defend against,» Chell said.
war with iran,iran,mojtaba khamenei,us navy,military,wars
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The Pentagon said Friday it has opened a formal command investigation into the Feb. 28 strike in Minab, Iran, where Iranian regime officials claim dozens of children were killed in a strike at a school beside a military compound.
Questions continue to mount about possible U.S. involvement in the strike, the intelligence used before it and whether Iran placed military assets near civilians to shield them or weaponize potential casualties.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has appointed a senior officer from outside the command to lead the review.
«CENTCOM has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation,» Hegseth said, noting that the investigator is a general officer from outside the command. «The command investigation will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident.»
CENTCOM ISSUES SAFETY WARNING TO IRANIAN CIVILIANS AS REGIME USES ‘HEAVILY POPULATED’ AREAS FOR LAUNCHES
«There’s only one entity in this conflict, between us and Iran, that never targets civilians, literally never target civilians,» he said, defending U.S. targeting procedures while the investigation unfolds. «We will investigate. We’ll get to the truth and we’ll share it when we have it.»
The strike has drawn scrutiny as the investigation continues without answers.
If U.S. forces carried out the attack, it would raise questions about how American military planners assess civilian risk in densely populated areas and whether safeguards designed to prevent unintended casualties functioned as intended in the opening phase of a high-intensity conflict.
A view of debris at a school in Hormozgan province, Iran, on March 5, 2026. Local authorities reported casualties after strikes in the area from a girls primary school in the city of Minab. The building sustained significant structural damage following two reported air strikes approximately 40 minutes apart. The Pentagon is investigating the strike. (Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Image)
CENTCOM, the military department tasked with overseeing the U.S. operation in Iran and all Middle East operations, has declined to confirm whether American forces launched the missile, saying only that «it would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation.»
Iranian-American journalist Banafsheh Zand, who has been following the reporting in Iran, pointed to the school that has been there for more than a decade, reported affiliation with Iran’s military.
«The school itself was for the children of the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Navy, and it speaks volumes to where the place was and how they use civilian shields,» she said.
The use of human shields is against international humanitarian law.
While the regime claims between 168 fatalities and 180 fatalities, mostly girls between the ages of 7 and 12, along with teachers and parents from the school, Zand told Fox News Digital that there has been no independent confirmation of the reported casualty figures.
«There is no confirmation on the number of people, from anyone other than regime sources,» she said. «Some people in the area said it was 65 boys. Sixty-five boys? What are 65 boys doing in a girls’ school at 10:30 on a Saturday morning?»
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks on during a joint press conference with Admiral Charles Bradford «Brad» Cooper II, Commander of US Central Command, at US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, on March 5, 2026. (Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
Addressing satellite images that appear to show newly dug graves, Zand added: «The number of graves are not in keeping with the number of people that they claim is dead. It doesn’t match up.»
The U.S. government has not confirmed the death toll.
Preliminary findings from U.S. officials suggest the strike was likely carried out by American forces, The New York Times reported Wednesday, though the investigation remains ongoing.
In response to the Times’ reporting, Central Command reiterated to Fox News Digital that the investigation is ongoing.
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Retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who previously commanded U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet, cautioned against getting ahead of the full review and said U.S. targeting doctrine is designed to prevent civilian tragedies, including legal review and collateral damage assessments before a strike is approved.
A demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in Tehran in solidarity with the government against Israel’s attacks and to mark Eid al-Ghadir. (Atta Kenare/Getty Images) (Atta Kenare/Getty Images)
«We actually have judge advocates that sit there and help us through the process of targeting,» Donegan told Fox News Digital.
But even precision-guided weapons do not eliminate uncertainty.
«War isn’t precise,» Donegan said. «Mistakes can be made, and they can happen anywhere in the chain of events.»
Raytheon, the manufacturer of the Tomahawk missile, could not be reached for comment.
Wes Bryant, the Pentagon’s former chief of civilian harm assessments, said his office, the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, was tasked with advising commanders on targeting and ways to mitigate civilian harm but had been severely curtailed over the past year.
Image shows a girls’ school struck in Minab, Iran. (Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Bryant said that taken together, the available evidence strongly suggests U.S. involvement.
«All evidence, at this point, points to a U.S. strike,» Bryant told Fox News Digital.
If U.S. forces conducted the strike, Bryant said the more plausible explanation would involve a failure in target identification or civilian risk assessment.
«These munitions have a very small circular probable,» Bryant said. «If it missed, it would have been within a few meters.»
This picture obtained from Iran’s ISNA news agency shows the site of a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, on Feb. 28, 2026. (Ali Najafi/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Satellite imagery and reporting from Iranian officials indicate the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school sat roughly 600 meters from the adjacent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility in Minab, Iran, underscoring how closely civilian and military infrastructure were positioned.
«I’m leaning more toward that this is complete misidentification,» from the U.S., he said, arguing that the likely issue would be a failure to properly vet or update targeting information rather than a random malfunction.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital, «This investigation is ongoing. As we have said, unlike the terrorist Iranian regime, the United States does not target civilians.»
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Possible Tomahawk missile and strike location
Open-source video analysis and reported missile remnants have fueled speculation that the munition resembled a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile — a weapon Iran does not operate.
The Tomahawk is fielded by the U.S. and a limited number of close allies, including the United Kingdom and Australia, neither of which have been firing missiles in the conflict.
The Tomahawk is a long-range, precision-guided cruise missile capable of striking targets hundreds of miles away and typically carrying a high-explosive warhead.
Independent open-source investigators, including Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group specializing in open-source analysis, have examined video and satellite imagery from the area and reported that multiple strikes hit the compound within a short time window.
However, commentators on social media have their own theories.
«The wing-to-body ratio of the munition in question matches an Iranian Kh-55–derived Land Attack Cruise Missile,» said podcast host and veteran Matt Tardio on X. «So what could have caused this? Simply put, GPS jamming of an Iranian KH-55. The USA and Israel were, and continue to actively jam the Iranian airspace.»
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An aerial view shows funerals underway at a graveyard in Minab, Iran, March 3, 2026, for students and staff from a girls school who authorities said were killed in a Feb. 28 strike. (Handout/Getty Images)
Former National Security Council official Javed Ali, now a professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, told Fox News Digital the central question is the quality of intelligence that informed the strike decision.
«How solid was the intelligence picture on that facility?» Ali said. «How good was the intelligence that went into what’s called a target package?»
OPERATION EPIC FURY DESTROYS IRAN’S NAVY AND CUTS MISSILE ATTACKS BY 90% IN ONGOING CAMPAIGN
Ali, who previously worked on targeting analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said military strikes are typically built from multiple streams of intelligence — human, technical, geospatial and open source — designed to provide high confidence that a structure is a legitimate military objective.
«Clearly something went wrong,» Ali said.
Civilian proximity raises targeting questions
Bryant said the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and broader civilian harm mitigation enterprise were scaled back in 2025, reducing the number of personnel available to conduct investigations into civilian harm.
The center was established by Congress to help the military minimize harm to civilians in conflict, but reporting shows its dedicated staff were folded into broader bureaucratic units or removed as part of a departmental reorganization.
Its teams were designed to work with commanders on target planning to make sure targets were active military sites and advise on the potential for civilian harm, according to Bryant.
A general view of Tehran with smoke visible in the distance after explosions were reported in the city, on March 02, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Contributor/Getty Images)
The Pentagon has not publicly detailed the current status or staffing of the office, nor confirmed whether the office is involved in the ongoing Minab, Iran, school investigation.
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An open source intelligence expert and former intel official, who requested anonymity, told Fox News Digital the structure resembles the other military buildings that were targeted in the strike, which could help explain how an intelligence misreading might occur and lead analysts to believe the site was another military facility within the compound.
Analysts say when civilian casualties occur during precision strikes, the explanations generally fall into three categories: intelligence failure, technical malfunction or human error.
Mourners attend the funeral of children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, Iran, on March 3, 2026. (Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told Fox News Digital incorrect or outdated intelligence could lead to misidentification, while a GPS-guided munition could malfunction or be disrupted. Human error — such as incorrect coordinate entry — is another possibility.
If an investigation ultimately finds negligence or a breakdown in targeting procedures, the U.S. military has a precedent for imposing consequences.
Bryant pointed to the 2015 U.S. strike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed dozens of patients and medical staff at a facility operated by Doctors Without Borders, the international humanitarian medical charity which a U.S. army investigation later concluded was «a tragic and avoidable accident.»
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A U.S. military investigation later concluded that airstrike was «a tragic and avoidable accident» caused primarily by human error and procedural failures, with the medical facility mistakenly identified as a combat target.
«In that case, a couple of different commanders were removed,» Bryant said, noting that accountability can range from administrative measures to the revocation of certifications, depending on findings.
war with iran,iran,conflicts defense,pentagon,pete hegseth
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