The Donald Trump administration has demanded $1 billion payment from the University of California – Los Angeles as a condition for restoring the hundreds of millions of dollars withheld from the school over antisemitic claims.
Mr Trump’s administration accused UCLA of endangering Jewish students during pro-Palestine protests on school grounds in 2024. The government alleged the school failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and consequently, withheld more than $580 million of its research funding.
The proposed agreement also requested the university to terminate scholarships based on race and gender and avail the government with the race, raw test scores and GPAs of applicants.
President James Milliken of UCLA, who only assumed position on August 1, said the demand would have devastating consequences on the school and students, noting that the university would hold “dialogue with the federal administration.”
Mr Milliken criticised the Trump administration, adding that the withdrawal of funding would not tackle antisemitism.
“These cuts do nothing to address antisemitism,” said Mr. Milliken. “Moreover, the extensive work that U.C.L.A. and the entire University of California have taken to combat antisemitism has apparently been ignored.”
“As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians,” Mr Milliken said in a statement on Friday.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California, viewed as a potential presidential candidate in the next polls, called the demand an “extortion” and promised to “fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Donald Trump today is trying to silence academic freedom,” Mr Newsom said at a briefing on Friday. “He has threatened us through extortion with a billion-dollar fine unless we do his bidding. So long as I’m governor I will stand tall and push back against that and I believe every member of the California legislature feels the same way.”
