Trump Wants Universities to Show Him the Money, or No Deal

[dalton99a]

Last edited Tue Aug 19, 2025, 07:54 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/us/politics/trump-universities-financial-penalties.html

https://archive.ph/JexVQ

Trump Wants Universities to Show Him the Money, or No Deal
President Trump has personally stipulated that hefty financial penalties be part of agreements his administration is negotiating with the elite universities. Critics call it extortion.
By Michael C. Bender, Alan Blinder and Michael S. Schmidt
Aug. 19, 2025, 3:52 p.m. ET

In May, cabinet officials and West Wing aides brought President Trump a potential settlement with Columbia University. But instead of giving his sign-off, he issued a new demand.

The school needed to pay $200 million, Mr. Trump told his team. The university’s cost for a deal soared from zero dollars to nine figures in the course of a single meeting.

The sudden stipulation, described by six people familiar with the episode and which has not been previously reported, jarred university leaders. They had seen the fierce backlash that followed when major law firms struck deals with the White House and promised to pour resources into seemingly benign causes favored by Mr. Trump. And although negotiations were still unfolding, they had already spent weeks working through policy changes intended to meet the administration’s original dictates around addressing antisemitism on campus.

Still, eager to maintain $1.3 billion in annual federal grant funding, Columbia ultimately agreed to the price.

Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s methods to extortion. The White House has said that the goal of extracting money from universities is to enhance trade schools, apprenticeships and other “real world” training.

Now, a hefty payment appears to be a bedrock provision for any deal, including one with Harvard University, which the administration sees as its biggest prize, and which has billions in federal grants at stake. The emerging agreement with Harvard would see the school spend $500 million, owing to Mr. Trump’s demand that the university spend more than double what Columbia agreed to pay.

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[Irish_Dem]

1. What happens to all this money?

[Captain Zero]

3. article says it will go to trade schools

If you believe THAT.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Trumps crime syndicate trade schools.

[Captain Zero]

2. This is insane. And of course, the Nazipublicans are fine with it.

nt

[0rganism]

5. Every college or university that complies betrays all American education

Naturally, they will comply; hesitantly at first, then automatically as the behavior becomes normalized.

[WSHazel]

8. Not exactly

While universities have no choice but to comply, the ripple effect will be catastrophic on higher education. Most educators who can leave, will leave, and this will happen together with big tuition hikes since the money has to come from somewhere. Contributions will nose dive, since who wants to fund into an inevitable next Trump shakedown? All of this will create a doom loop. The best case is a greatly diminished higher education system. The worst case is major universities failing.

[0rganism]

10. Looks like we're getting both your best and worst cases

> The best case is a greatly diminished higher education system
Already there and still diminishing as professors and top students decide to teach and learn elsewhere, endowments dry up, and the local population decides "higher" education is an inefficient waste of money.

> The worst case is major universities failing
By complying with the shakedowns, they've already failed. Failure in the business sense will take somewhat longer, but it's the caboose in a long train of desperate submission and cowardice. We'll get there soon enough.

[vapor2]

6. any link with no paywall?

[dalton99a]

9. New link added

[Blue Full Moon]

7. Isn't racketeering illegal

[lame54]

11. The hightest institutions of learning...

Can't seem to learn

[thought crime]

12. "Critics call it extortion." Because it's extortion.