EXCLUSIVE: Linda McMahon Confirms Deal With Harvard Is Close

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told The Daily Signal a settlement with Harvard University is close, after a protracted battle over the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

“Harvard’s made some concessions,” McMahon said in an exclusive interview. “They’ve come to the table on some things, and we’re still—you know—it’s the way negotiations go. You go back and forth until you get a deal done.”

Trump said Wednesday that he heard the United States had a deal with Harvard.

“I hear we have a deal but who the hell knows with them,” Trump told reporters.

When asked about the president’s statement by The Daily Signal, McMahon said, “He’s right. It’s ongoing.”

Harvard and the Trump administration have engaged in a legal battle for about nine months after President Donald Trump pulled $2 billion in federal funding and removed Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. The president took action over Harvard’s alleged failure to curb antisemitism and its DEI practices.

Harvard is reportedly willing to spend $500 million on workforce development training programs, but Trump administration officials have said some of the money should be paid directly to the federal government, the New York Times reported. 

The Trump administration has already settled with several universities, including Northwestern University, Cornell University, the University of Virginia, Brown University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania, in civil rights investigations into their DEI programs.

On Oct. 1, the White House invited nine elite universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” adhering to the administration’s stated educational principles in order to gain preferential federal funding. They had until Nov. 20 to send suggested revisions to the compact’s wording.

The administration then invited any university committed to implementing “common sense principles, like student equality, financial responsibility, merit-based hiring, and civil discourse” to sign.

In 2025, none of the original invitees agreed to sign. McMahon said that in 2026, the administration is working on “developing the right kind of compact with some input that we’re already getting.”

“Let’s be clear: There is no higher education compact at the moment,” she said.

“There was a draft version, preliminary version, that went out that was intended to be sent to universities to get their reaction from it. It didn’t go far and wide.”

“So some did react. We are working on developing the right kind of compact with some input that we’re already getting,” McMahon told The Daily Signal. “So I expect that once that’s done, we’ll see a lot more people signing up, a lot more universities signing up for that.”

When asked if she expects the original invitees to sign onto the compact once it’s finalized, McMahon said yes.

“If they were willing to come on board in the beginning and then give us some input, then I would expect that they would be even more pleased with what the final version will be,” McMahon said.

While McMahon does not have a timeline for when the compact will be finalized, she said a lot of great minds are giving input.

“There are a lot of inputs, and a lot of really good minds and a lot of good thinkers, a lot of people affiliated with universities, not affiliated with universities, really giving solid input into this,” she said.

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