President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his administration's decision to freeze Harvard University's federal funds, criticizing the Ivy League college for hiring former Democratic mayors Bill de Blasio of New York and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago as teaching fellows. 

Trump said Harvard hired "two of the WORST and MOST INCOMPETENT mayors in the history of our country" and paid them a lot of money so that they could "'teach' municipal management and government."

"These two Radical Left fools left behind two cities that will take years to recover from their incompetence and evil," he wrote on Truth Social. "Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and 'birdbrains' who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called 'future leaders.'" 

Harvard hired de Blasio as a teaching fellow at the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics in the fall of 2022 after his mayoral career ended. He left Harvard after his fellowship ended. 

In June 2023, Harvard hired Lightfoot as a teaching fellow at T. H. Chan's School of Public Health. Lightfoot left Harvard after spending time there during the fall semester of 2023.

Trump previously suggested that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status and "be taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological and terrorist-inspired/supporting 'Sickness.'"

The recent news came after Harvard refused to comply with the Trump administration's demands to make changes, including those related to concerns about so-called "DEI" hiring practices and antisemitism on campus.

"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," Harvard said. "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government."

Hours after the statement was released, the federal government froze billions of dollars in Harvard's funding.