War Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t hesitate Friday to hammer the very institution which awarded him his master’s degree by announcing the department would be ending all professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs with Harvard University.

“Harvard is woke,” Hegseth said in a video announcement posted on X. “The War Department is not.”

Hegseth revealed the U.S. Department of War would cut ties with Harvard for active-duty service members beginning in the 2026–27 school year, a severance he called “long overdue.”

Hegseth holds a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He said many of America’s top universities are squandering the American tradition of “free speech and open inquiry.”

“Take Harvard University, for example,” he said. “I know it well.”

He said the school had a “rich tradition” with the U.S. military, pointing out that General George Washington took command of the continental army in Harvard Yard in 1775 and used the university as a military base.

From then on through the Korean war, the secretary said, military service “was commonplace at Harvard.”

“There are more recipients of our nation’s medal of honor who went to Harvard than any other civilian institution in the United States,” he said. “But today this university with such a unique history, which receives billions of our federal tax dollars, is one of the red-hot centers of hate-America activism.”

He continued:

So many faculty members openly loathe our military. They cast our armed forces in a negative light and squelch anyone who challenges their leftist political leanings, all while charging enormous tuition. It’s not worth it. They’ve replaced open inquiry and honest debate with rigid orthodoxy. In our line of work, ideological automatons are useless. We need leaders who can wrestle with multiple viewpoints.

Hegseth also took aim at Harvard’s left-wing activities, alleging that research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party and that “university leadership has encouraged a campus environment that celebrates Hamas [and] allowed attacks on Jews.”

“And still promotes discrimination based on race in violation of Supreme Court decisions,” he continued. “DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] was literally founded at Harvard. Thankfully, President Trump understands this and has moved to end these abuses.”

As Breitbart News reported, on Monday President Trump announced he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard as lawyers for his administration have appealed a judge’s order requiring the restoration of $2.7 billion in frozen federal research funding to the university.

The funding was cut after Harvard refused to comply with administration demands that more be done to combat antisemitism and elimination of DEI initiatives.

The university sued the Trump administration last spring over the funding freeze, arguing in court that the move amounted to an unconstitutional “pressure campaign” to control the academic institution.

In his video presentation, Hegseth didn’t limit his criticism to Harvard. He said other Ivy League schools have a “pervasive institutional bias,” don’t encourage diverse viewpoints, and coddle “toxic ideologies” that “actively undercut our mission and undercut our country.”

He said the Pentagon will be evaluating funding for existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at Ivy League schools and other civilian universities.

“The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs,” he said.

He took aim at Harvard again as he concluded his message.

“We train warriors, not wokesters,” he said. “Harvard, good riddance.”

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.