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The Trump administration announced Friday it would slash $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University in the most drastic escalation yet of the White House’s campaign against pro-Palestine protests at elite colleges.
The move, which was designed to punish Columbia for allegedly failing to combat the “persistent harassment” of Jewish students, signals that the Trump administration is willing to turn threatened funding cuts over antisemitism complaints into targeted, unilateral action.
While the Trump administration has not announced plans to entirely cut off Harvard’s access to federal funding, it has kept the University under intense scrutiny. Last week, a federal task force announced that it planned to visit Harvard and nine other universities, including Columbia, to investigate their response to antisemitism.
A similar move against Harvard could be devastating to the University, which received $684 million in federal money in fiscal year 2024. On Friday, former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey S. Flier described the Columbia cuts on X as an “existential threat with a blunt instrument.”
Friday’s funding cut — which was announced by the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, and United States General Services Administration in a press release Friday — came as the White House ramped up threats against universities over pro-Palestine protests.
President Donald Trump has long broadcast his desire to deport international students over pro-Palestine activism. But his administration has intensified messaging suggesting that it hopes to punish individuals and institutions for allowing protests to proceed.
Just one week before the Friday announcement, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he would halt federal funding for universities that allowed “illegal protests.”
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” he wrote. “American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
And in a Friday segment on Fox and Friends, newly confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Trump “is absolutely not going to be allowing federal funds to be going to these universities that continue to allow antisemitism on its campus.”
McMahon, like Trump, said she expected university leaders to crack down on protests, characterizing them as a danger to public safety rather than a matter of free speech.
“To allow this kind of unrest — this is not about freedom of speech. We’re talking about violence on campus,” McMahon said. “College presidents need to call in the police right away. They have to quell these uprisings and not allow faculty to be attacked or their students to be attacked.”
Since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Columbia has faced intense protests and sweeping student arrests. Last spring, the New York Police Department arrested hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators for occupying an academic building and pitching an encampment on Columbia's campus.
Though Harvard has also seen a building occupation, rallies, and a pro-Palestine encampment, protests at the University have been largely peaceful — and none have resulted in mass arrests.
But the Trump administration has long suggested that Harvard’s federal funding is on the table, too. Trump took direct aim at the University’s $50 billion endowment in February to justify a proposal to cut funding for indirect costs tied to research projects. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services also launched an investigation in February into the Harvard Medical School over pro-Palestine messaging displayed by students at graduation ceremonies.
The Columbia cuts gave new fuel to vocal Harvard critics, who expressed anticipation online that the Trump administration would turn its attention to Harvard next.
Shabbos A. Kestenbaum — the lead plaintiff in a Title VI lawsuit against Harvard — called on the Trump administration to bring its crackdown on Harvard.
“Promises made. Promises kept. We look forward to seeing Harvard next,” he wrote in a Friday post on X.
Billionaire donor Bill A. Ackman ’88 wrote in a Friday post on X that Harvard could provide an even bigger target for the White House to slash funds.
“I would guess the @Harvard number will be much larger,” Ackman wrote.
On Friday, much remained unclear about the funding cuts at Columbia. The White House did not specify which grants and contracts were canceled, nor did it say over what period the money would otherwise have been disbursed. It also did not indicate what legal process the administration used to revoke the funding.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
