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Columbia Agrees to Pay $200M Fine to Placate Trump

The university has settled with the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.

Columbia University has agreed to pay a $200 million fine to reverse the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to its federal funding. The deal will also resolve more than half a dozen civil rights investigations related to antisemitism claims, according to the agreement. Alongside the fine, Columbia agreed to follow laws prohibiting race-based admissions and hiring, and to stick to promises made in March to address antisemitism and to tamp down student protests. President Donald Trump boasted about the deal in a Truth Social post in which he commended Columbia for “for agreeing to do what is right.” Trump has accused Columbia and other elite universities of failing to adequately address harassment of Jewish students, while also railing against their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. He forced Columbia to the negotiating table by canceling $400 million in grants and contracts in March—an amount that grew to more than $1 billion when factoring in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to The New York Times. The settlement reopens the spigot of research funds and also makes clear that the Trump administration holds no power to interfere with faculty appointments, admissions policies, or academic speech. Harvard, which opted to sue the administration over its funding cuts unlike Columbia, is still negotiating to claw back its funds. When reached for comment, Columbia referred the Daily Beast to its announcement of the agreement. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

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