Newsom lashes out at universities for agreeing to ‘sell their soul’ to Trump for federal funding

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., accused major universities such as Columbia and Brown of “selling their souls” to the Trump administration after agreeing to multimillion-dollar settlements.

Several universities had federal research grants cut or frozen either for failing to address antisemitism or for promoting so-called “woke” policies, according to the administration. Though some schools have agreed to pay large settlements to restore funding and close additional investigations, Newsom reiterated that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will not follow suit.

“UCLA is not going to sell their soul like Harvard or Brown or Penn or Columbia,” Newsom said on “Pod Save America” Thursday. “Shame on all of them. We’re not. And we’re going to fight like hell to protect our democracy, our liberties, our freedoms. I love Republicans. I love Democrats. I don’t care what your party affiliation is. I honestly don’t. I care about this country and our democracy. I care about the rule of law.”

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He called out Harvard over reports suggesting the university was close to reaching a $500 million settlement to regain access to more than $2.6 billion in federal funding.

“And let me make this crystal clear to everyone watching and make it crystal clear to the folks at Harvard,” Newsom said. “We will never ever sell our soul to Donald Trump. Harvard, I pray you are listening. How could you? Of all institutions, on tens of billions of dollars, what’s the point of your damn endowment if you cannot stand on principle?” 

While speaking in San Francisco earlier this month, Newsom made a similar declaration, insisting that UCLA would not pay a settlement under his watch.

“We’re not Brown, we’re not Columbia, and I’m not going to be governor if we act like that,” Newsom said. “Period. Full stop, I will fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from UCLA, along with the creation of a $172 million claims fund for alleged Title VII violations under the Civil Rights Act.

UCLA has already paid $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students and faculty members over the school’s handling of anti-Israel protests, including its failure to stop protesters from setting up what Jewish students and faculty described as a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus.