Harvard's president Alan Garber doubled down on his defiance against the Trump administration, telling NBC News' Lester Holt in an exclusive interview, that the lawsuit is "bigger than Harvard." The interview is Garber's first since the university sued the Trump administration over frozen federal research funding.

Harvard took legal action against the Trump administration on Monday over the government’s decision to freeze over $2 billion in federal funding meant for the university after it refused to make the reforms it ordered.

The tensions between Harvard and the Trump administration appear to be growing as the president calls the university an "antisemitic, far-left institution" and a "threat to democracy."