New York, May 3: US President Donald Trump has said that Harvard University would lose its tax-exempt status, repeating his intent to enlist the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in his feud with the university and upend its finances.

"We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!" Trump wrote on Friday on social media.

However, an administration official said the President's social-media post wasn't a formal directive to the IRS to take action, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Trump's comment comes after Harvard filed a lawsuit late last month against the administration, setting up a legal showdown between America's most prominent university and the White House, Xinhua news agency reported.

The suit argues that the government has violated the university's constitutional rights by freezing billions of dollars in federal funding and imperiling its academic independence.

Trump froze more that $2 billion in federal funds to Harvard, which prompted the university to sue, after it refused to institute policy changes, including the discontinuation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Earlier this week, Harvard announced it is renaming its "Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging" to "Community and Campus Life".

The university also said it would no longer host or fund affinity group celebrations during commencement, according to The Harvard Crimson.

The school on Tuesday released a pair of internal reports: one on how anti-semitism and anti-Israeli bias are handled on campus, and another on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.

A White House official on Wednesday described the moves as "positive," but signalled that the university needs to do more to crack down on what it sees as anti-Israel bias on campus.

White House Spokesperson Harrison Fields said that any forthcoming IRS actions were independent of the President and that any audit or investigations were initiated before Trump's post.

Representatives for the Internal Revenue Service did not respond to questions on Friday.

The tax code requires that any IRS employee who receives an improper request from the White House report that to the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, whose office also did not respond to questions.

Harvard, the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, said a revocation of its tax-exempt status would be unlawful and unprecedented, a comment echoed by free-speech advocacy groups and other non-profit organisations on Friday.

"There is no legal basis to rescind Harvard's tax-exempt status," the Boston-area school said in a statement.

"The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America."

Since taking office in January, Trump has targeted US universities by freezing federal funding, launching investigations, revoking international students' visas and making other demands.

Trump, a Republican, has said higher education has been gripped by antisemitic, anti-American, Marxist and radical left ideologies.

Trump's administration escalated its fight against Harvard in recent weeks by freezing federal grants, seeking details on its foreign ties and threatening its ability to enroll foreign students.

The grant freeze came after Harvard rejected and denounced what it called illegal demands made by the Trump administration, which included a demand to audit the viewpoints of its professors and students, seek outside auditors to review several of its departments, ban face masks and some diversity initiatives, and overhaul its governance.

(IANS)

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