Harvard University President Alan Garber said on Wednesday’s “NBC Nightly News” that the school was suing the Trump administration because it would not compromise to retain $2.2 billion in grants.

Garber said, “What they are indicating is that they want to directly review who we hire on our faculty. That has implications for what kinds of views can be expressed on campus. They also want to be able to tell us who we need to fire and they also want to intervene in our admissions processes. That is what we are objecting to.”

Host Lester Holt said, “You’re taking on the most powerful man in the world.”

Garber said, “We are defending what I believe is one of the most important linchpins of the American economy and way of life, our universities.”

Holt said, “How much pain can Harvard absorb here?”

Garber said, “We don’t know how much we can actually absorb, but what we do know is that we cannot compromise on basic principles like defense of our First Amendment Rights.”