Trump escalates crackdown on elite universities with sweeping action against Columbia

United States President Donald Trump - File Photo

Months before Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong stepped down, conservative policy circles were buzzing about ways to force elite universities to change.

Critical of college admissions, diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and campus protests that he lambasted as pro-Hamas, Max Eden, then a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an outline that presaged what was to come in the new Trump administration. He singled out Columbia as the top target.

“To scare universities straight,” Eden wrote in the Washington Examiner, Education Secretary Linda McMahon “should start by taking a prize scalp. She should simply destroy Columbia University.”

Eden’s opinion piece came before Trump was inaugurated or McMahon was confirmed. He suggested cancelling research grants and deporting international students who took part in protests. Though it’s unclear whether his plan had a direct impact, it bears a striking resemblance to the early actions the Trump administration has taken to transform America’s most prestigious colleges and universities, the Washington Post reported.

A new front in the education culture war

During his campaign, Trump characterised colleges as indoctrinating young people and not doing more to stop antisemitism and protests on campus. “Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all,” he said last year.

Columbia quickly became the first front in the higher education war.

Last month, McMahon met with Armstrong and told her that $400 million in funding to Columbia had been cancelled for what the federal government said was the school’s failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination. Several international students who the administration said participated in “pro-jihadist protests” at Columbia were sought or detained by immigration officers and threatened with deportation.

Pressure spreads beyond Columbia

President Donald Trump said it was only the beginning. On the day the administration cancelled the federal funding to the school, a senior Trump administration official described Columbia as a “test case” for using funding to pressure colleges to comply with Trump’s ideology.

Billions more in funding to Columbia are at stake as the Trump administration evaluates whether the Ivy League school has acted strongly enough to combat antisemitism. Armstrong abruptly stepped down on March 28, and Claire Shipman took on the role of acting president.

The Trump administration’s efforts quickly expanded. Days before McMahon was confirmed, federal agencies warned 10 universities of visits by the Justice Department’s antisemitism task

force. Another 60 schools were told they faced potential enforcement action. Since then, funding reviews have targeted Harvard, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania.

Pushback and legal challenges emerge

Officials at some schools say they have not received details about the government’s demands. At Harvard, the administration sent a letter requiring structural reforms, including eliminating DEI programs and implementing merit-based hiring.

Though Columbia has not sued the administration, unions representing its faculty and staff have. The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers filed suit, alleging First Amendment and civil rights violations.

A climate of fear for international students

International students at Columbia became a focus. On March 8, a Palestinian graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, was detained and told his green card had been revoked. Immigration agents searched for others, prompting some students to flee campus and hide.

ICE has since detained several international students from other colleges. Critics, including civil rights lawyers, accuse the administration of targeting people for their views and warn of dangerous precedent.

Scientific research takes a hit

The cuts to federal funding have had immediate consequences. At Columbia’s Irving Medical Center, 232 NIH grants—about 25 percent of total grants—were terminated. Faculty say this jeopardises early-career scientists and key research, including autism studies.

Demands and changes on campus

Following the funding cut, the Education Department sent Columbia a list of demands: disciplinary changes, a mask ban, oversight of certain academic departments. Columbia responded by promising changes to protest rules, police authority, faculty diversity, and admissions policies.

But the university stopped short of full compliance. It did not abolish its student disciplinary board or place the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department into receivership. Instead, it moved oversight to the provost’s office.

A deeper political strategy

Observers say the crackdown on Columbia is part of a wider political effort. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute notes the growing mistrust of higher education, particularly among conservatives.

The administration appears intent on using financial leverage to reshape university policies. “This was planned,” said Reinhold Martin, president of Columbia’s AAUP chapter. “We’ve seen the script. The assault on Columbia is going according to that script.”