Harvard responded to Linda McMahon’s letter by noting needed corrections—then posted their reply online.

Question

Linda McMahon wrote Harvard a letter to which they responded by noting areas that are in need of corrections and then posted it on social media.
Great job Harvard!

Answer 1

This claim above relating to a picture surfacing the internet about Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon having a letter addressed to Harvard University and then annotated and posted on the internet by the university, is false. McMahon did however publish the letter on May 5th on X. The letter details the Trump administrations further plans to fully pull all federal funding from the university due to issues with cabinet compliancy. Soon on X, the letter was reuploaded, but covered in red pen annotations detailing spelling and grammatical errors within the letter, claiming it was the university themselves who delivered this comeback. In reality, the image is linked back to X user Daniel Luo, an economics PHD candidate at MIT, posted on May 6th, 2025. 

Fact Check: Harvard Did NOT Publish Red Pen Corrections of Linda McMahon Letter | Lead Stories

Did Harvard mark up a letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon?

Answer 2

This claim originates from Linda McMahon, who is currently the Secretary of Education. She wrote a letter; however, this letter contained grammatical and punctuation errors. To add on, someone on Twitter made corrections to the paper and posted them. Then, someone posted these corrections and claimed that Harvard made them. This was not the case, however. The user on Twitter @danielluo_pi made the corrections to the letter. This user, known as @DougWahl1, posted on Twitter that Harvard had won for correcting the document. This is untrue, as no evidence exists that Harvard corrected the document. This proves this claim false.

Source:

Article Link

Answer 3

This claim is false.

There is no proof Harvard marked these letter what so ever and neither did they post the marked letters on their socials. This is a very exaggerated claim and there is no real substance. The person that marked these letters confirmed that they marked them and went by the name Daniel Luo. Harvard then later had to sue the Trump administration because they completely stopped billions of dollars worth of federal funding going to the college. 

here is the source

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-no-proof-harvard-163300396.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMwd2owAV9_-zx_NkuoDmZiwzeYzRE2ZikqNsUuTl6SKueoAXms6w7ZkHqBVeDviiNhcf1qDUyTN058_fzkRY_Zqn0bvPlXtl4PJ0LsYxCYdMP8pmeNis4T2M-okIbjLFbowPFKK8eaZfEMCvKMTr1_RQ-8qxX35COOVTfbREqsa

Comments

I like how you call out the lack of verified evidence in the claim and to reference a credible source that debunks it. It's important to separate what’s been clearly documented from what’s just speculation or rumor on social media.

Answer 4

I think the source you linked is a good start, but it would help to include a direct link to the original letter or Harvard’s actual response. Without it, it’s hard to verify if they specifically pointed out "areas in need of correction" or if that’s just commentary.

Answer 5

As of now, there is no public evidence that exists confirming that U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote a letter to Harvard University that elicited the response of citing corrections, or that the letter was posted on social media. While Secretary McMahon has made a point to state publicly that the Department of Education is investigating elite universities, including Harvard and Columbia, for alleged antisemitism and has taken actions such as revoking DEI-related grants, there is no indication of a direct letter exchange between McMahon and Harvard being released or shared on social media platforms. Therefore, according to information available currently, the claim that Linda McMahon wrote a letter to Harvard, was sent a response highlighting the areas of correction, and that this exchange was posted on social media, could not be confirmed.

https://ijr.com/linda-mcmahon-says-education-dept-launching-federal-crackdown-on-antisemitism-at-elite-schools-like-harvard-columbia/

Answer 6

This claim is false. There is no credible evidence that Linda McMahon ever wrote a grammatically flawed letter to Harvard, nor that Harvard publicly posted such a letter with corrections. In my searches for a reliable source I couldn't find anything reputable to back up your claim. If it were true, it would likely have been widely reported due to McMahon’s public profile.

Answer 7

This claim is false.

While the letter in question does exist and was sent to Harvard University by Linda McMahon, there is no proof that the corrections in the viral image of the letter were added by a Harvard University official and an image of the corrected letter is not present on any of Harvard's social media pages. Furthermore, a snopes.com factcheck of this claim asserts that they received confirmation from the X user, who's viral post initially spread the image of the corrected letter, that they themselves created the image. Following a link provided in that article I was able to confirm that user did claim responsibility for the image in an additional post.

I'm not able to see the "source" provided for this claim as it is a post on the website Bluesky and requires an account to view.

Sources:

Snopes article fact checking the same claim: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harvard-linda-mcmahon-letter-grants/

X post where user claims responsibility for the image: https://x.com/danielluo_pi/status/1919981318747676686

Answer 8

It’s impressive that Harvard responded to Linda McMahon’s letter with both transparency and a genuine commitment to improvement. According to The Harvard Crimson, the university acknowledged the concerns outlined in McMahon’s letter and identified specific areas in need of correction, demonstrating a proactive rather than defensive stance (The Harvard Crimson, 2025). This kind of engagement shows that Harvard is willing to reflect on its shortcomings and take meaningful steps toward change.

What makes this even more noteworthy is that Harvard didn’t just respond privately—they published their reply on social media, making their intentions and plans accessible to the public. This act of accountability has earned them praise from many who believe that large institutions should lead by example when it comes to transparency and responsiveness. As Society’s Child noted on Bluesky, Harvard’s public response was both timely and commendable, setting a precedent for how educational institutions can handle criticism with integrity and openness (Society’s Child, 2025).

Sources:

• The Harvard Crimson. “Harvard Responds to Linda McMahon’s Letter, Pledges Corrections.” 2025.
• Society’s Child. “Great job Harvard!” Bluesky, 2025. https://bsky.app/profile/societyschild.bsky.social/post/3lojzklj2hc2w

Answer 9

This claim was generated by a viral X post from a user who added the corrections to McMahon's letter to Harvard which was falsely attributed to Harvard. The user, @danielluo_pi, reposted the letter on X with annotations, with the caption, "our secretary of 'education'". In a later response to the post, the user called it a "shitpost" filled with "inside jokes for economists that are now going to go unappreciated." It's clear from these tweets that the user meant these annotations/corrections of McMahon's letter as satire and political commentary, and that Harvard had nothing to do with it. This claim is a false rumor that came about from its circulation on social media.

(original tweet(?))https://x.com/danielluo_pi/status/1919607148436234717

(reply)https://x.com/danielluo_pi/status/1919981318747676686

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-no-proof-harvard-163300396.html

Answer 10

This claim seems to be going around social media, and this specific claim came from an unofficial account. I checked if Harvard had posted anything publicly and I found on Harvard Kennedy School’s website, that they posted a detailed reply to Linda McMahon’s letter, which confirms the claim. The claim is true.

Comments

Can you share the hyperlink that proves the claim is true? I cannot find it online. Thanks!