President Donald Trump’s administration has levied a massive $1 billion fine against the esteemed University of California (UC) system. The demand comes as the administration intensifies its claims of antisemitism in how UCLA handled student protests related to Gaza in 2024. The proposed fine is five times the amount Columbia University agreed to pay to resolve similar federal accusations.
James Milliken, the president of the UC system, which includes ten campuses, stated that the $1 billion demand would “completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system.” He emphasized that a payment of this size would inflict “great harm on our students and all Californians,” who rely on the UC system for crucial technologies and medical advancements. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a member of the UC’s board, called the president’s demand “extortion” and said that the state would sue. He accused Trump of trying to silence academic freedom and praised the UC system as a key driver of California’s economy.
Reports suggest that the administration is also demanding that the university pay an additional $172 million into a claims fund to compensate Jewish students and others allegedly affected by discrimination. This move seems to follow a strategy previously used by the White House to secure concessions from Columbia University and is currently being used against Harvard University. The Trump administration has already frozen over half a billion dollars in medical and science grants at UCLA alone. This fine and the freezing of grants are seen as part of a broader political effort to challenge universities that are viewed by the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement as overly liberal and hostile to their ideology.
