Donald Trump’s administration said it would freeze more than $2.2bn in funding for Harvard University, after it became the first major US higher education institution to publicly resist pressure from the government. 

The administration released a statement late on Monday announcing the cuts to the Ivy League university’s federal funding, hours after Harvard rejected what it said was an attempt at “government regulation” of the institution.

“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the multi-federal agency Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in its statement.