US President Donald Trump doubled down on a funding standoff with Harvard University that has become a focal point of his war against elite educational institutions.
Harvard has stood out for defying Mr Trump's attempts to force it to submit to wide-ranging government oversight, in contrast to several other universities that have folded under intense pressure from the White House.
"Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World's Great Universities or Colleges," Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
"Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds."
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He has demanded the university change the way it runs itself, including how it selects students and its hiring practices, and that it submit itself to "audits" of academic programmes and departments.
Harvard President Alan Garber said the institution would not "negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights".
The US president and his administration have justified their pressure campaign on universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism and support for the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
The anti-Semitism allegations are based on protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept across campuses last year.
The White House also strong-armed dozens of universities and colleges with threats to remove federal funding over their policies meant to encourage racial diversity among students and staff.
Time for someone 'to hold the line'
A Harvard lecturer said that after nine years of Mr Trump's "presence on the national political stage" it is "not possible to appease him, to give him some of what he wants and to hope that he'll go away".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr Dennis M Hogan said: "The way that you respond to a bully is not by encouraging the bullying - that just shows the bully that the bullying works, so it's time for someone to hold the line".
The lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard said it is "incontrovertible" that life in the United States has changed in the short-time since Mr Trump returned to office, adding the question is whether the change will be "durable".
"And that is going to be down to how much people are willing to do to stand up for basic freedoms," he said.
Dr Hogan said he hopes the stance Harvard has taken is the start of a wider resistance to the Trump administration's tactics by other universities, law firms and media.
He said it is clear from the Trump's administration's written "demands" to Harvard that it is about "micro-managing almost every aspect of the university's operations - from admissions, to hiring, to scholarship, to governance".
"There's been a years-long project on the American Right [wing] to control, to take over US universities," he said.
"It began with public universities in Republican-governed states and now we're seeing it extend nationwide, and so this has been a very useful wedge for them to do it," he added.
