The fallout from Trump's war on Harvard will outlast his term

President Trump has threatened to redirect $ 3bn in Harvard research funding to vocational schools.

The White House has issued a letter to federal agencies, instructing them to review contracts the government has awarded Harvard $ 100 m in contracts.

Trump 's directives represent a frontal attack on one of America 's most prestigious, and wealthy, institutions of higher education.

Many high-profile American universities have received funding cuts or been subject of investigations.

Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have reported that the administration has suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in their research grants.

The Department of Education has launched investigations of 10 universities for alleged antisemitism.

To some, this all amounts to an across-the-board war on elite higher education by the Trump administration.

Professors fear the consequences of expressing political views or conducting disfavoured research.

Trump: " Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they're getting their ass kicked" The walls of the ivory tower have been breached, regardless of whether one believes it is the barbarians - or liberators - at the gate.