Trump Administration Ordered To Restore $500M In UCLA Funding

As soon as President Donald Trump took office in January, he made public colleges and universities one of his primary targets due to what the administration dubbed “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The Trump administration has made withholding federal funding one of its primary methods of getting schools to bend to its will. That tactic has run into legal pushback after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration must restore $500 million in withheld funding to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

According to AP, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted UCLA a preliminary injunction, finding that the Trump administration likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires specific explanations for why federal funding is being cut. Lin found that the documents the Trump administration sent to UCLA informing them of the cuts provided insignificant information about why the funding was being revoked. 

UCLA announced in August that the Trump administration withheld $584 million in federal grant money due to allegations of antisemitism and civil rights violations stemming from affirmative action. In that same month, Lin ruled that $81 million in grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) would be restored to UCLA after finding the cuts violated a June preliminary injunction she had already issued requiring the NSF to restore dozens of grants to the University of California. 

The Trump administration’s attacks on higher education started in February when the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to various universities informing them that their federal funding could be at risk if they continued implementing DEI initiatives and using race as a factor in college admissions. The DOE wasted no time in withholding federal funding from schools over DEI initiatives, even freezing funds from schools that preemptively shuttered their DEI departments. 

The most despicable part of these funding freezes is that, in many cases, the funding has been intended for research into illnesses and medical technology that could improve the lives of Americans across the board. In the case of UCLA, the Trump administration was withholding medical research grants from the National Institutes of Health that were intended for studies into Parkinson’s disease treatment, cancer recovery, and cell regeneration in nerves.

Imagine being so racist that you would withhold funding for cancer treatment? 

The weaponizing of federal funding has seen countless colleges outright shutter their DEI departments, several university presidents resign from their roles, and various university officials fired for making comments supportive of DEI initiatives. The Trump administration even reached settlement deals with Brown and Columbia University, resulting in them paying tens of millions in fines to the federal government and shuttering their DEI initiatives. The Trump administration initially sought a $1 billion settlement with UCLA to end its investigation into the school’s DEI initiatives. The school said that a payout of that magnitude would “devastate” the university. 

Not every college has bent the knee to the Trump administration, though. Harvard has been one of the most pronounced targets of the Trump administration’s crusade against higher education. The administration froze billions of dollars in federal grant money intended for Harvard and tried to ban international students from attending the school. Harvard fought back with multiple lawsuits, which restored federal funding for the school and blocked the ban on international students. Even the DOE’s memos on DEI received legal pushback after a federal judge ruled that they were illegal. 

As more and more court rulings restore federal funding to universities, it appears that one of the Trump administration’s key strategies to combat DEI in schools is beginning to falter. 

SEE ALSO:

Affinity Graduations Canceled Amid Trump’s DEI Crackdown

Jackie Robinson’s Army History Erased In Trump’s DEI Purge

UVA President Resigns Over Trump’s Anti-DEI Investigation

Trump’s DOJ Investigates University of California Over DEI Plan

UNC Asheville Dean Of Students Fired For Pro-DEI Comments