U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is nearing a deal with Harvard University to resolve a months-long standoff.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that Harvard University will pay $500 million as part of a deal with his administration, after months of negotiations.

“We're in the process of getting very close, and Linda's finishing up the final details, and they'd be paying about $500 million and they'll be operating trade schools. They're going to be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things, engines, lots of things,” Trump said at an Oval Office event, referring to Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

“This would be a giant trade school, series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard. Now, this is something that we're close to finalising. We haven't done it yet,” he added, signalling that completion of the agreement would put an end to Harvard’s disputes with the administration.

“Their sins are forgiven,” Trump said.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard had no immediate comment on Trump's remarks.

Trump has said that Harvard and other universities allowed displays of antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests and had zeroed in on the pro-Palestinian protest movement that roiled Harvard's campus, moving to terminate more than $2 billion in research grant funding to the university.

It also sought to bar international students from attending the school, threatened Harvard's accreditation status, and opened the door to cutting off more funds by finding it violated federal civil rights law.

The administration has reached similar settlements with Columbia and Brown universities, which agreed to comply with certain government demands.

Several other Ivy League schools have made deals with the Trump administration in recent months, including Columbia University and Brown University, which accepted certain government demands. Columbia agreed to pay more than $220 million to the government and Brown said it will pay $50 million to support local workforce development.

Rights advocates have raised free speech, privacy and academic freedom concerns over the Trump administration's probes into universities.

Copied