The Trump administration yanked roughly $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University on Friday, citing the Ivy League school’s noncompliance with anti-discrimination laws.
A federal antisemitism task force — convened by President Trump and including the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education as well as the General Services Administration (GSA) — announced the barring of US taxpayers’ money from funding the school.
“Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”
More funding cancellations are likely to follow, the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism also said in their announcement.
“The era of the federal government enabling Jew-hatred is over,” declared the watchdog group StopAntisemitism. “We applaud the Trump Administration for heeding our calls to defund Columbia University and urge this to be just the first of many decisive actions.”
The GSA has been deputized to issue “stop-work orders” on the hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to Columbia by the DOJ, HHS and Education Department.
Federal officials signaled earlier this week that $51.4 million worth of contracts were ready to be put on the chopping block.
In total, the feds have more than $5 billion in grant commitments with the Ivy League university that are currently under review.
An audit began Monday and combed through Columbia’s finances following a series of antisemitic incidents on campus and an ongoing Title VI probe.
“We are reviewing the announcement from the federal agencies and pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding,” a university spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
“We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff.”
The antisemitism task force noted that the university has “not responded” to their requests.
“Anti-Semitism is clearly inconsistent with the fundamental values that should inform liberal education,” said Sean Keveney, HHS Acting General Counsel and a task force member.
“Columbia University’s complacency is unacceptable.”
The funding cancellation comes after more than a year of incidents of antisemitic harassment and intimidation on the Morningside Heights campus following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Demonstrators descended on Columbia and set up a tent city toward the end of the spring semester in 2024 — and later occupied the historic Hamilton Hall building — before being driven out by the NYPD.
No students who participated were expelled and just four were suspended in the aftermath, according to the findings of a scathing House Republican report issued in December.
“Columbia said the 22 students arrested for the criminal takeover of Hamilton Hall would face expulsion. Instead, the University lifted the students’ interim suspensions after pushback from radical faculty, allowing 7 to graduate, restoring 11 to good standing, and leaving 3 with preexisting sanctions suspended and 1 on probation,” according to the report, whose contents were first revealed by The Post.
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Hamas even publicly endorsed the undergrads’ demonstrations.
“We in the Hamas movement believe that any popular movement demanding an end to the aggression and genocide against our people are useful and supportive activities for our cause,” a terror group spokesman Bassem Naim told Newsweek as the protests reached a fever pitch in April.
Jewish students also filed lawsuits against the university over the “rampant antisemitism” on campus during the 2023-24 school year — with one undergrad settling for $395,000 with the school after being disciplined for jokingly deploying “novelty fart sprays” against anti-Israel protesters.
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik resigned from her post this past August after having testified to Congress that pro-jihadist slogans protesters proclaimed on campus were “hurtful” but didn’t rise to the level of antisemitism.
Last month, two Barnard College students were finally expelled a month after participating in a masked anti-Israel protest that invaded a classroom studying Israeli history and distributed sick “Hamas Media Office” flyers glorifying terrorism.
