Summers: 'Any self-respecting Treasury secretary would resign' over Trump Harvard IRS directive

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Source: The Hill

04/17/25 1:22 PM ET


Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said on Thursday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should resign before he complies with President Trump’s directive for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status.

In a thread on the social platform X, Summers warned of the broader implications of using the IRS to target political opponents. “Any self-respecting Treasury Secretary would resign rather have the Department be complicit in the weaponization of the IRS against a political adversary of the President,” Summers wrote.

“Harvard will endure and it is far, far from perfect, but if this directive is not withdrawn, the Administration will have taken another substantial step away from the rule of law and democracy,” he continued. The Treasury Department on Wednesday sent an inquiry to the IRS’s acting chief counsel, Andrew De Mello, asking the agency to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status, according to The Washington Post.

The official directive came one day after Trump floated the idea of revoking Harvard’s status in a post on his Truth Social platform, writing, “Perhaps 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?’”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5254015-larry-summers-scott-bessent-resign-harvard-irs/

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Link to Larry Summers Xitter THREAD (Threadreader) - https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1912824530352955496.html

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Lawrence H. Summers
@LHSummers
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Any self-respecting Treasury Secretary would resign rather have the Department be complicit in the weaponization of the IRS against a political adversary of the President. Harvard will endure and it is far, far from perfect, but if this directive is not withdrawn, the Administration will have taken another substantial step away from the rule of law and democracy.

.@SecScottBessent is derelict with respect to what may be his most important duty—maintaining law-based rights respecting our tax collection system. DOGE violating privacy rules, evisceration of enforcement capacity, politicization of leadership and now political intrusion into a specific taxpayer’s status.

The result will be revenue losses of a trillion dollars or more over the next decade. The erosion of American democracy has costs that cannot be priced.

George Shultz met his test by facing down President Richard Nixon when his staff tried to interfere with the IRS. Tragic that @SecScottBessent has not protected the IRS.

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Any self-respecting Treasury Secretary would resign rather have the Department be complicit in the weaponization of the IRS against a political adversary of the President. Harvard will endure and it is far, far from perfect, but if this directive is not withdrawn, the Show more
7:04 AM · Apr 17, 2025