White House seeks fines from other universities after Columbia deal

WASHINGTON – The White House is seeking fines from several universities it says failed to stop anti-Semitism on campus,

including Harvard University

, in exchange for restoring federal funding, a Trump administration official said on July 25.

The administration is in talks with several universities, including Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown, the source said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration is close to striking deals with Northwestern and Brown and potentially Cornell.

A deal with Harvard, the country’s oldest and richest university, is a key target for the White House, the official added.

A spokesperson for Cornell declined to comment. Other universities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

US President Donald Trump and his team have undertaken a broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at US universities, which the Republican leader says are gripped by anti-Semitic and “radical left” ideologies.

He has targeted several universities since returning to office in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses in 2024.

Columbia University said on July 23 that it will

pay more than US$200 million

(S$256 million) to the US government in a settlement with the administration to resolve federal probes and have most of its suspended federal funding restored.

The Trump administration has welcomed the Columbia deal, with officials believing the university set the standard on how to reach an agreement, the official said.

Harvard has taken a different approach, suing the federal government in a bid to get suspended federal grants restored. REUTERS