Trump demands $1 billion payment from UCLA to recover frozen federal research funds

President Donald Trump's administration is demanding from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) a payment of $1.billion to restore hundreds of millions in federal research funding that was recently suspended, according to a draft agreement reviewed by The New York Times.

The federal government's proposal, which also imposes on the institution a contribution of $172 million earmarked for a compensation fund on behalf of victims of civil rights violations, is far larger than other financial outlays made by other universities in separate negotiations with the White House. So far, the record was held by Columbia University, with $221 million agreed to be paid, followed by Brown University, with a bill of $50 million to be disbursed.

The president of the University of California, James B. Milliken, confirmed Friday that the institution received a document from the Justice Department and is reviewing it. He also suggested that such a high payment is virtually unaffordable.

"As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources, and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians."

Julio Frenk, UCLA's chancellor, noted that $584 million in research funding is already suspended and at risk of being lost.

The move underscores the Trump Administration's effort to combat anti-Semitism and reform educational institutions it views as dominated by progressive ideals. Indeed, a settlement of this magnitude would also mark a successful precedent for the federal government and a losing battle for the rest of the institutions still in negotiations with the Trump Administration that planned to pay smaller sums to avoid extensive legal disputes and problems with the White House.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is one of the potential Democratic candidates for the 2028 election, promised that he will fight federal pressure.

"I will fight like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen," he said, referring to the DOJ's $1 billion offer. “There are principles. There’s right and wrong, and we’ll do the right thing, and what President Trump is doing is wrong, and everybody knows it.”

According to the NYT, the draft agreement not only contemplates financial penalties, but it also requires UCLA to eliminate scholarships based on race or ethnicity, suppress diversity statements in hiring processes, and appoint a special external government auditor to monitor compliance with the terms.

The document, in addition, includes a clause to prevent the government from directly interfering with academic freedom, admissions, or personnel.

The Trump Administration is in similar negotiations with universities such as Cornell and Harvard, which is, for now, the only large house of study to take the case to court. It is unclear whether UCLA will follow the same path as Harvard or seek a multi-million dollar settlement, much larger than Columbia or Brown.