The Trump administration has requested that the Internal Revenue Service start the process of revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, according to people familiar with the matter.Officials at the Treasury Department asked the IRS’s acting chief legal counsel, Andrew De Mello, to move ahead with a plan to revoke Harvard’s key status, which lets donors get tax deductions for contributions and keeps the university from paying taxes on any net earnings. Harvard is exempt from federal income tax as it operates as a 501(c) (3) educational institution.