India, April 16 -- After Harvard refused to accept far-reaching policy changes ordered by the White House, President Donald Trump threatened to strip the elite university of its tax-exempt status.

Trump said Harvard "should lose its tax-exempt status and be taxed as a political entity" if the university does not agree to his demands to change how it runs itself.

Tax-exempt status is "totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST," he said in the post on Truth Social.

In a letter to students and faculty, Harvard President Alan Garber vowed to defy the government and said the school would not "negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."

The letter also called on the university to reduce the power of students and...