Trump Takes A Sledgehammer To The Ivy League

President Donald Trump and his administration are taking a sledgehammer to the Ivy League, pausing more than $2 billion in federal funding to the institutions as they investigate them.

Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has announced that they are pausing federal funding to six Ivy League institutions as they conduct ongoing investigations into possible discrimination on campus, including, but not limited to, antisemitism. Cornell has become the latest institution to face the freezing as the administration paused more than $1 billion amid its investigation into the school “for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”

Trump’s Education Department warned 60 institutions in March, including all the Ivy league institutions with the exception of Penn and Dartmouth, that it would take action if they “do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.” As a result of the letter and ongoing investigations into alleged antisemitism on campus, the administration paused $210 million to Princeton University and $510 to Brown University.

SCOOP: The Trump admin is pausing about $210 million in funding to Princeton University, an administration official tells the @DailyCaller.

The funds are being paused while the admin investigates antisemitism on campus. The decision is not the culmination of the investigation,…

— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) April 1, 2025

“All the universities have to do is respect the rights of Jewish students as they are required to do and all students as they are required to do under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act. But they have proven just absolutely unwilling to do that. They are allowing these protesters to violate campus laws and actual laws with impunity, campus rules and the law with impunity,” Jason Bedrick, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, told the Daily Caller. 

While Harvard University has $8.7 billion in federal funds under review as the administration investigates for alleged antisemitism, the institution is looking at borrowing money from Wall Street. The institution had $7.1 billion in debt outstanding in 2024 and that figure is expected to reach $8.2 billion after the bond issuance, a university official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“As part of ongoing contingency planning for a range of financial circumstances, Harvard is evaluating resources needed to advance its academic and research priorities,” a university spokesman previously told the DCNF.

As most Ivy League institutions are facing the pausing of funds because of alleged antisemitism violations, the University of Pennsylvania had $175 million dollars paused because the administration determined that its policies conflicted with a directive banning men from competing in women’s sports. According to the administration’s rapid response X account, the funds were paused because of the school’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.”

BREAKING: The Trump Administration has “paused $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania” over its policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.

Promises made, promises kept. pic.twitter.com/o4yiiqtH9d

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 19, 2025

Lia Thomas, a biological male, competed on the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas participated in the 2022 NCAA championships, winning the 500-yard women’s final by 1.75 seconds.

The administration has also called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association to strip biological men, such as Thomas, of all women’s titles and records they previously claimed, the Daily Caller previously reported.

“UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” a White House official told the DCNF. “This is NOT the result of the Title IX investigation launched by the Department of Education. This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities. The federal funding paused was from DOD and HHS.” (RELATED: ‘Biological Unreality’: Female Athletes Sue Ivy Leagues After Being Forced To Change In Front Of, Compete Against Man)

A UPenn spokesperson told the outlet that the university has consistently been in compliance with rules that also apply to the NCAA and its Ivy League peer institutions.

After the Trump administration pulled over $400 million from Columbia University over allegations of the institution failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic protests, the university and the federal government reached an agreement to help better protect students and have the funds restored. As a part of the deal, Columbia agreed to ban masks on campus, recruited more campus police officers and expanded its disciplinary office staff.

“Our response to the government agencies outlines the substantive work we’ve been doing over the last academic year to advance our mission, ensure uninterrupted academic activities, and make every student, faculty, and staff member safe and welcome on our campus,” University interim president Katrina Armstrong wrote in a statement in March.

As universities look for a way to get their funding back, Bedrick warned that some institutions might not have the purest intentions in the negotiating process.

“I expect universities are going to try and get away with it. In that sense, the question is going to be, does the Trump administration really scrutinize them and say ‘no, you’re not really complying, and then crack down?’ Or does the appearance of compliance look like enough that they keep the money going,” Bedrick told the Caller. “At least for the near future, that’s the big question.”