The clock ticks on Columbia: Today marks the deadline for Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong to commit to a series of reforms—from a mask ban to enforcing disciplinary rules and regulations—in order to enter into discussions with the Trump administration about the restoration of $430 million in lost federal grants.
Armstrong addressed the situation in a letter Wednesday afternoon that didn’t say much. Columbia, she wrote, is “committed to doing what’s right” and will continue to “engage in constructive dialogue with our federal regulators.” What does that mean? Armstrong didn’t say, but she did tout “the creation of a new Office of Institutional Equity.”
“The letter came shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that Columbia ‘is getting close to yielding to President Trump’s demands in negotiations to restore $400 million in federal funding,'” our Collin Anderson writes. “Sources familiar with the process, however, told the Washington Free Beacon that the parties are nowhere near a deal that would lead to the resumption of funding.”
Stay tuned for updates.
READ MORE: Columbia Stares Down Trump Admin’s Deadline To Implement Reforms
One chai tea latte and a side of terrorism, please: Momodou Taal is a British and Gambian dual national who’s in the United States on a student visa to study at Cornell University. As a campus protest leader, he takes his cues “from the armed resistance in Palestine.”
Before the Trump administration issued an executive order pledging to deport folks like Taal, he claimed to enjoy visiting “public places like cafés” with Cornell students and professors to discuss what he calls the “genocide against the people of Palestine.”
The Trump administration has since scared him out of doing so. As a result, he sued the administration, arguing that it deprived his Ivy League buddies of their irrevocable right to… listen to his pro-Hamas diatribes.
“Prof. Wa Ngugi and Mr. Parasurama have been deprived of their rights to listen to Mr. Taal’s ideas and suggestions,” the lawsuit states, referring to Cornell professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi and graduate student Sriram Parasurama, both of whom are American citizens. “The loss of Mr. Taal’s voice in these spaces has diminished the richness and diversity of political dialogue within the community and has deprived the citizen-Plaintiffs of an important source of intellectual and organizing leadership.”
The suit, then, “attempts to use a unique legal argument to halt the administration’s student visa revocation efforts—one that focuses less on the administration’s ability to revoke student visas and more on the purported ‘chilling effect’ the threats to do so have on U.S. citizens,” writes the Free Beacon‘s Alana Goodman. “It also downplays Taal’s rhetoric, characterizing the graduate student as a peaceful activist ‘in support of the Palestinian people,’ rather than an advocate for Hamas.”
READ MORE: Foreign Cornell Activist: Threats of Deportation Deprive My Friends of Their ‘Rights To Listen’ to My Pro-Hamas Rhetoric
Nice gig if you can get it: Members of Congress often complain that their salaries have not kept up with inflation and compensation in the private sector. But they do enjoy some little-known benefits, including one that allows them to bill the taxpayer for a vehicle used to traverse their congressional districts.
Some 42 lawmakers participated in the program in 2024, our Andrew Kerr reports. That includes 15 Republicans who represent “geographically expansive districts that average 18,100 square miles each” and mostly lease standard cars from American manufacturers.
It’s a different story for the 27 Democrats, “several of whom used taxpayer funds to lease vehicles from luxury brands including Tesla, Lexus, and Volvo” and 15 of whom “represent dense urban districts that are smaller than 500 square miles.”
Firebrand Jasmine Crockett, who has said the government is “not in the business of giving out money” to taxpayers, checks both of those boxes. Every month since she assumed office in January 2023, she’s billed the public $999.96 to pay for a “vehicle lease,” House disbursement records show. The make and model of her publicly financed whip are unclear (she’s not required to disclose them and didn’t respond to our request for comment) but the amount is almost identical to the monthly lease for a Tesla Model S. Crockett’s district is only 335 square miles.
READ MORE: Democrats in Congress Drive Luxury Cars on Taxpayer Dime
Away from the Beacon:
Our full Thursday lineup is below.
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