California Hits Back at Trump’s $200M UCLA Grant Freeze: ‘Manipulation’

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has condemned the Trump administration’s suspension of research grants for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), over alleged antisemitism.

The U.S. Department of Justice froze hundreds of millions of dollars in medical and science research grants to UCLA over allegations of campus antisemitism and use of race in admissions.

“It is a cruel manipulation to use Jewish students’ real concerns about antisemitism on campus as an excuse to cut millions of dollars in grants,” Newsom said in a statement. Newsweek has contacted the Justice Department for comment.

Why It Matters

Newsom’s comments fuel his confrontation with the Trump administration, the latter seeking to put pressure on universities after student protests on college campuses about the war in Gaza were dubbed antisemitic by some lawmakers and groups.

What To Know

The U.S. Department of Justice said this week that the UCLA had violated the civil rights of Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests.

The university’s Chancellor Julio Frenk said he was told that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, was suspending certain research funding to the UCLA.

The Department of Health and Human Services, of which NIH is a part, said in a statement that it would “not fund institutions that promote antisemitism.”

The UCLA had earlier announced it had agreed a $6 million settlement of alleged discrimination brought by Jewish students and a faculty member. The lawsuit accused the university of failing to take action when pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments on campus in spring 2024.

The Los Angeles Times said university leaders had been expecting this moment for months amid federal investigations into alleged use of race in admissions, employment discrimination against Jews, and civil-rights complaints from Jewish students.

But Frenk said Thursday that the pausing of funding—whose amount he did not reveal but which Newsom said was around $200 million—was a loss to both researchers and Americans whose health benefits from its work. The LA Times reported that the amount was $300 million.

Frenk said that antisemitism “has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination,” adding that “we recognize that we can improve.”

Newsom weighed in with a statement Friday that said that freezing the funding—which would investigate invasive diseases, “cure cancer, and build new defense technologies—makes our country less safe.”

What People Are Saying

California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “Freezing critical research funding for UCLA—dollars that were going to study invasive diseases, cure cancer, and build new defense technologies—makes our country less safe.”

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement on the freezing of funding: “[It] is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do.”

What Happens Next

The LA Times reported that it is not clear what steps the UCLA might take, but Newsom has said he was “reviewing” the Justice Department’s findings.