Donald Trump has shown repeatedly that he’s not afraid to use the power of the purse when it comes to combatting the excesses that have been so blatant at so many of our country’s high-profile colleges and universities. As RedState’s Brad Essex reported, he’s making them feel the heat for violating his executive order prohibiting men from playing women’s sports and for allowing virulent antisemitism to thrive on their campuses.
Harvard and Columbia have already felt the sting, with Harvard facing scrutiny over $255.6 million in federal contracts and $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments, and Columbia losing $400 million last month after being accused of tolerating “persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Education Secretary Linda McMahon didn’t mince words, stating that Harvard’s failure to protect its students has jeopardized its once-sterling reputation. Columbia, meanwhile, has bent the knee, agreeing to a nine-point plan—including stricter immigration law adherence and protest regulations—to regain its lost funding.
Read more: 'Promises Made, Promises Kept'—Trump Yanks Millions in Funding From Ivy League University
Trump Turns Off the Money Machine to Princeton to Stop Their Antisemitic Ways
Trump was far from done, though, and on Tuesday evening, a New York Times report claimed even more, bigger freezes are on the way:
The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern amid civil rights investigations into both schools, two administration officials said.
The funding pause involves mostly grants and contracts with the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unannounced decision.
The moves are the latest in a rapidly escalating campaign against the nation’s elite universities that has resulted in more than $3.3 billion in federal funds suspended or canceled. The other schools that have had funds frozen include Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Penn and Princeton.
Ouch, that’s a lot of cash.
BREAKING: The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern amid civil rights investigations into both schools.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 9, 2025
Universities have acted with impunity for too long—they are now realizing the consequences. pic.twitter.com/0PmmYjZhaX
After the October 7, 2023 atrocities by Hamas terrorists in Israel, where they savagely murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more hostage, Israel struck back against the terror group, inflaming leftists and causing mass pro-terrorist protests which are still going on to this day. One particularly despicable episode came from Cornell professor Russell Rickford, who found the savagery “exhilarating.”
This guy still has his job teaching impressionable young minds:
He's far from the only example of dangerous and vicious antisemitism that occurred, and Trump has seen enough:
Both Cornell and Northwestern were both included on a list of 60 colleges and universities that the Department of Education’s civil rights arm warned earlier this month could have federal funding taken away over alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment on campus.
The institutions and shamed included six of the eight Ivy League institutions — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Yale — and local schools Rutgers, Rutgers-Newark, Sarah Lawrence, three branches of the State University of New York, The New School and Wellesley.
Other prominent Northeastern colleges targeted in the letter were Emerson College in Boston; Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Muhlenberg College and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania; and Middlebury College in Vermont.
Meanwhile, schools like UPenn and the University of Maine have turned a blind eye toward—or actively encouraged—men playing in women’s sports, taking females' titles and scholarships in what can only be described as grossly unfair competition. Trump’s not having that either.
Finding Out: Trump Admin Yanks Funding to Blue-State University That Allows Men in Women's Sports
There’s an infection that’s been spreading throughout many of our nation’s institutions of higher education, and the president has a very good question: why should Joe American’s tax dollars be paying for it? Do what you want, Harvard, Cornell, et al.—but do it on your own dime if that’s how you want to play it.
The nation’s elite academic institutions have lost the plot and become full-on indoctrination centers.
Trump is fighting back.
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