‘Harvard is woke. We are not’: Pete Hegseth slams Ivy League college as government cuts ties

The Pentagon on Friday announced it is cutting all academic and training ties with Harvard University, ending military education programmes, fellowships and certificate courses at the Ivy League institution, in what officials openly describe as a confrontation driven more by ideology than by academic or training standards . The decision will take effect from the 2026–27 academic year, although officers currently enrolled will be allowed to complete their studies.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services,” accusing the university of promoting ideological views incompatible with military values and operational readiness. “For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” he said. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard - heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks .” In a separate post on X, he added, “Harvard is woke; the War Department is not.”

Before the break, Harvard was among the military’s most prestigious civilian education partners, offering officers advanced training in national security, leadership, diplomacy and defence management. Programmes at the Harvard Kennedy School focused on crisis leadership, defence policymaking, geopolitics and emerging threats such as cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and space security. Harvard Law School trained military lawyers in national security law and the laws of armed conflict, while Harvard Business School provided instruction in leadership, logistics, defence procurement and budgeting. Research fellowships at the Belfer Center covered nuclear security, arms control and great-power competition, and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health delivered training in military medicine, disaster response and pandemic preparedness.

Alongside the Pentagon’s decision, President Donald Trump has frozen and placed under review nearly $9 billion in federal funding to Harvard , sharply escalating financial pressure on the university, which has emerged as the central target in his broader campaign against elite universities accused of promoting progressive ideology and suppressing conservative viewpoints . After Harvard resisted federal demands for sweeping reforms last year, the administration moved to cut funding, attempt restrictions on foreign student enrolment and launch multiple investigations. Trump has also repeatedly mocked Harvard in public speeches, once saying its students “can’t even add two and two,” accusing elite campuses of replacing common sense and critical thinking with ideological indoctrination and producing graduates who are “overeducated but under-smart.”

Hegseth, himself a Harvard alumnus , has long echoed these criticisms. In 2022, while working as a Fox News commentator, he publicly returned his Harvard master’s diploma in protest , accusing the institution of ideological indoctrination, a symbolic act that resurfaced in Pentagon messaging following Friday’s announcement.

The Pentagon has also ordered a sweeping review of similar military education and fellowship programmes at other Ivy League universities, including Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell , signalling that while Harvard is the primary target, the administration’s campaign extends far beyond a single institution. The move raises the possibility of a wider rollback of partnerships between the armed forces and elite civilian universities, programmes long valued for broadening strategic thinking and preparing officers for senior leadership roles.

The university has pushed back through legal challenges, securing initial court rulings in its favour, though major cases remain unresolved. Harvard has said it will not surrender its independence or constitutional rights , even at significant financial cost.