The White House has brushed off criticism levied by dozens of US universities and colleges that accused the Trump administration of unprecedented “political interference” in American academia.

“The president has made it quite clear that it’s Harvard who has put themselves in a position to lose their own funding by not obeying federal law, and we expect all colleges and universities who are receiving taxpayer funds to abide by federal law,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Leavitt told reporters that Trump was “not going to tolerate illegal harassment and violence towards Jewish American students or students of any faith on our campuses across the country”. “We will be responding to the lawsuit in court,” she added.

The educational facilities — including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown — said in the letter that they spoke with “one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education”.