NEW YORK -- US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to divert billions in grant dollars away from Harvard University and give those funds to trade schools across the United States, escalating his clash with the elite institution.

"I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land," Trump said in a post on social media. "What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!"

The Trump administration has already moved to freeze funding and block Harvard's ability to enroll international students in an intensifying battle over what the president has cast as a failure by the Ivy League university and others to crack down on antisemitism. Harvard is the oldest and richest US university with a $53 billion endowment.

"Administration officials have been using that rationale to pressure schools to institute wide policy changes that university officials say infringe on free speech and their academic missions," noted Bloomberg News in its report about the move.

"Harvard has been front and center in Trump's campaign, with the administration already suspending more than $2.6 billion in federal research money and saying the school won't be able to receive new funding," it added.