By Alan Blinder
Copyright nytimes
President Trump said Tuesday that his administration was close to reaching a multimillion-dollar agreement with Harvard University, which would end a monthslong standoff that had come to symbolize the resistance to Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape higher education.
Harvard, which would become the latest university to strike a deal with the Trump administration, has been seeking an end to a thicket of investigations that the government opened as part of its wide-ranging efforts to bring the university in line with Mr. Trump’s agenda.
“We are in the process of getting very close,” President Trump said in an appearance from the Oval Office. He added that the details were being finalized, and said, “They would be paying about $500 million.”
Harvard did not immediately comment on Mr. Trump’s remarks.
The breakthrough after weeks of stalled negotiations appeared to stem from multiple phone calls to Mr. Trump from Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire chief executive of the Blackstone Group, a massive investment firm that manages more than $1 trillion in assets. Mr. Schwarzman is a graduate of Harvard Business School.
