State lobbyist disclosures show Harvard University and Tesla employ the same Boston-based lobbying firm, raising questions about the arrangements at a time when Harvard is being targeted by the Trump administration and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Tremont Strategies Group represents both entities, according to filings with the Massachusetts secretary of state's office, as well as other organizations facing federal fundings cuts, like Beth Israel Lahey Health and UMass Amherst.
Lobbying firms "get to play it both ways," said James Browning, executive director of the lobbying accountability group F Minus. "They get to take Elon Musk's money even as Musk and DOGE are really harming some of their other clients."
The Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard this week, after the university refused to agree to a list of demands the government claims aim to combat "antisemitic harassment" on campus. This came after DOGE terminated millions of dollars in Department of Defense grants withHarvard, according to a public databasecompiled by MuskWatch.
Tremont Strategies did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Harvard declined to comment.
Tremont Strategies describes itself as a "bipartisan government relations firm," and maintains offices in Boston and Washington, D.C. Its partners include former Massachusetts Democratic CongressmanChet Atkins and Michael Morris, former director of government affairs for Gov. Deval Patrick.
In 2024, Tremont Strategies took in $72,000 from Harvard for representing the university on issues related to the Allston multimodal project, a massive traffic and infrastructure undertaking that will affect Harvard's lower Allston campus.
Tremont Strategies was paid $90,000 by Tesla last year for lobbying related to "legislation, regulatory matters, and issues affecting electric vehicles," also according to the lobbyist's filings.
Although data for 2025 is not yet available, the firm still lists both Harvard and Tesla as active clients with the secretary of state's office. Tremont Strategies has represented Harvard since 2021, state filings show, and Tesla since 2019.
Advertisement
Tesla has faced public scrutiny in recent months as its chief executive commands high-level influence in the Trump administration as head of the president's Department of Government Efficiency, a federal cost-cutting unit. The electric car maker's sales plunged 13% in the first three months of this year, the largest drop in its history.
The association with Musk has led other organizations that share lobbying firms with Tesla to distance themselves. The lobbying group Pioneer Public Affairs, which represents environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters, terminated its relationship with Tesla last May.
Some Harvard student groups are calling on Harvard to end its relationship with Tremont Strategies over its Tesla work.
"This is just one more entity that Harvard can and should divest from," saidViolet Barron, a Harvard junior who's an organizer with several pro-Palestinian groups, including Harvard Jews for Palestine.
Barron called it ironic that Harvard President Alan Garber is standing up to Trump on the funding cuts, when "on the other hand you have this material link to one of Trump's favorite right-hand men."
State law does not bar lobbying firms from representing clients with potentially competing interests, according to the secretary of state's office. An ethics guide published by the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics, a trade association, says lobbyists should disclose to a client whether work they're doing for another would have an adverse impact on their interests.
But Browning of the lobbying accountability group F Minus said Tremont Strategies should proactively move to end its relationship with Tesla, given its conflicts with their other clients.
"What Trump and Musk are doing is just unprecedentedly destructive, and it demands a stronger response than just waiting for the next Tesla check to arrive," Browning said.
