Harvard's AAA rating can withstand Trump threats for now, S&P Global says
Source: Reuters
June 23, 2025 11:32 AM EDT Updated 5 hours ago
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The triple A ratings of Harvard and other U.S. Ivy League colleges should be able to withstand all but the most extreme and coordinated tax and endowment fund threats posed by Donald Trump's U.S. administration, S&P Global has said.
Trump and Harvard have been battling over the president's allegations of on-campus anti-Semitism. The White House has terminated billions of dollars of grants and moved to ban Harvard from admitting international students.
The response from the oldest and richest university in the U.S. - which also has over $8 billion worth of bonds - has been to sue. Harvard won an injunction on the enrolment issue last week. Trump also signalled a resolution might be reached soon, but focus on the financial ramifications - and its triple A rating - remains intense given his threats to also strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status and ratchet up endowment taxes from 1.4% to as high as 21%.
Jessica Goldman, S&P's lead analyst on Harvard, said that despite all the pressures, Harvard's strong finances and flexibility to bolster its income streams if needed, meant its top tier rating should remain in place. Harvard "is one of our strongest ratings, so it would really take a confluence of these issues to impact the rating," Goldman told Reuters.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvards-aaa-rating-can-withstand-trump-threats-now-sp-global-says-2025-06-23/