Actions against universities at
Columbia University, which the Trump administration has used as evidence of
antisemitism at the university , the head of the Trump administration's Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, with President
Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7, 2025 In February 2025,
Leo Terrell, the head of the Trump administration's
Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, announced that he would investigate Columbia University, Harvard University,
George Washington University,
Johns Hopkins University,
New York University,
Northwestern University,
University of California, Berkeley,
UCLA, the
University of Minnesota, and the
University of Southern California as part of the Department of Justice's investigation into
antisemitism on college campuses. Trump and many Republican officials have advocated for new laws and policies that crack down on campus curriculum and protests that they believe perpetuate a left-wing bias in universities and discriminate against conservative viewpoints. In March 2025, the Education Department's
Office for Civil Rights contacted 60 colleges and universities across the United States to inform them that it had begun investigations of alleged violations of civil rights law "relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination". This was followed by an investigation of 45 universities for allegedly using racial preferences. The Trump administration announced that month that it was cancelling $400 million in federal funding for
Columbia University, "due to the school's continued inaction in the fact of persistent harassment of Jewish students" and "other alleged violations of
Title VI and
Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964". however, the university agreed to the demands, and announced that it would "overhaul disciplinary processes, ban masks at protests, add 36 officers with the authority to make arrests and appoint a new senior vice provost to oversee academic programs focused on the Middle East". Despite Columbia's agreement, , the federal funding has not yet been restored. Subsequently in March and April 2025, the Trump administration paused billions of dollars in federal funding for universities in express defiance of existing laws prohibiting such actions without following the proper legal processes which did not happen. It froze $1 billion in funding for
Cornell University, $790 million for
Northwestern University, $175 million for the
University of Pennsylvania, threatened $9 billion for
Harvard University, and paused academic grants to
Princeton University. The administration justified the funding pauses by saying that the universities had not done enough to comply with the government's priorities, such as the combatting of antisemitic discrimination. Also in April, faculties at several universities in the collegiate
Big Ten Conference voted to approve a "mutual-defense compact" against Trump administration actions. On April 23, 2025, Trump signed several executive orders related to college education. He directed the federal government to "enforce laws on the books" regarding the disclosure of large donations to universities as well as regarding
college accreditation, which Trump had called his "secret weapon" to exert control over universities. Additionally, he signed an order that established a government initiative to promote "excellence and innovation" at
historically black colleges and universities. Afterwards, a government lawyer from the administration sent a letter to Harvard demanding changes in its curriculum, hiring, and admissions policies, including hiring a third party acceptable to the Trump administration to audit "viewpoint diversity". Government officials later said that the letter had been sent in error. In addition, Trump asked the
Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard's
tax-exempt status. The
U.S. Department of Homeland Security also told the university that it needed to share with the government detailed records about its foreign students—including "relevant information" about students holding
student visas that had been involved in "known illegal" or "dangerous" activity, and information about the coursework of all student visa holders—or else it would lose its ability to enroll international students. Harvard responded by filing
a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the
District Court of Massachusetts, arguing that the freezing of funds was unconstitutional. On May 22, 2025,
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem informed Harvard that their
Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification was revoked, and therefore they were now prohibited from hosting international students. Subsequently, US district court judge
Jeffrey White issued an injunction, blocking the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of international students in US universities. On May 23, 2025, Harvard sued the Trump administration for banning them from enrolling international students. The same day, US district court judge
Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the revocation of Harvard's certification. On May 27, 2025, the
State Department ordered all US embassies to pause interviewing applicants for student visas, pending further guidance on "expanded social media vetting for all such applicants". On May 30, 2025, the State Department ordered all US embassies and consulates to conduct "comprehensive and thorough vetting" of the online presence of anyone seeking to visit Harvard from abroad. On July 23, 2025, Columbia University agreed to pay the Trump administration a $221 million fine to settle the government's claims against it and unfreeze funding. The deal, which would be in effect for three years, codified the majority of the administration's demands, such as prohibiting "illegal" diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, hiring new faculty and staff to supervise Middle Eastern programs and efforts to combat alleged antisemitism, and installing officers with arrest powers against students and an independent monitor to ensure compliance with the deal. Columbia stressed that the deal made no admission of guilt, and that the government did not have "the authority to dictate faculty hiring, university hiring, admissions decisions or the content of academic speech." Emboldened by
Columbia University's decision, the Trump administration launched new investigations and lawsuits targeting
UCLA,
Duke, and
George Mason University. In July 2025, Brown University reached an agreement with the administration. The administration was reported to have shared its intent to seek "all written communications" of faculty members at
George Mason University who had drafted a resolution supporting efforts on diversity at the university. On September 3, 2025, Judge
Allison D. Burroughs found Trump's efforts to freeze billions of dollars of funding for Harvard illegal, writing that the government had infringed upon Harvard's free speech rights and that it was "difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country's premier universities". On October 1, 2025, Trump sent an offer to nine universities, promising federal funding in return for commitments to advancing conservative ideas, banning the consideration of race or sex in admissions and hiring, and several other conditions. The "
Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" was sent to
Vanderbilt University,
Dartmouth College, the
University of Pennsylvania, the
University of Southern California,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the
University of Texas at Austin, the
University of Arizona,
Brown University, and the
University of Virginia. By October 20, the deadline given for feedback on the initial draft of the compact, seven of the nine universities had rejected the proposal. In October 2025, the University of Virginia made a deal with the Trump administration, agreeing to "not engage in unlawful racial discrimination in its university programming, admissions, hiring or other activities". The agreement followed the resignation of UVA president
James E. Ryan under pressure from the Department of Justice. In November 2025, Cornell University reached a settlement agreement, agreeing to the Trump administration's demands in exchange for the restoration of $250 million in federal research funding. On November 28, 2025, Northwestern University reached a settlement, agreeing to pay $75 million to the Trump administration and implement policy changes in exchange for a restoration of federal funding. Interim president
Henry Bienen said that "the payment is not an admission of guilt", and that the cost of a legal fight would have been "too high and the risks too grave". The terms of the agreement include "mandatory antisemitism training" and "providing safe and fair opportunities for women, including single-sex housing for any woman, defined on the basis of sex". The deals and demands made by Trump were criticized as coercive, a shakedown, and legalized extortion in what
Axios described as pursuit of a "cultural crackdown".
Cuts to research funding The Trump administration has also cut or frozen research funding, including research on
climate change;
vaccines;
HIV/AIDS;
COVID-19;
LGBTQ topics;
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI);
race and ethnicity; and other topics that the Trump administration has considered "
woke". Some of the funding freezes have been used to apply pressure on universities regarding non-science related matters. The
Trump administration's DEI policy has also led to government organizations
removing or modifying more than 8,000 webpages and around 3,000 datasets. The policy resulted in
the removal of around 400 books from the
U.S. Naval Academy library, including
Maya Angelou's
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) and Janet Jacobs's
Memorializing the Holocaust (2010), while retaining
Adolf Hitler's
Mein Kampf and the controversial book
The Bell Curve (1994) that discusses purported connections between
race and intelligence. Scientists have largely seen the funding cuts and Trump's efforts to affect university education, as dangerous to the state of
research in the United States, and many scientists have said they were considering leaving the United States as a result.
Student deportations , New York City on March 10, 2025 As a part of its efforts to conduct
mass deportations against immigrants, the Trump administration has pursued a policy of
targeting many non-citizen activist students and academics for deportation.
Marco Rubio, Trump's
secretary of state, estimated that the administration revoked over 300 student visas by March 27, 2025. The Trump administration developed a "
catch and revoke" strategy to monitor international students' social media posts to identify those that it believes are "pro-
Hamas" or "antisemitic". In March 2025, the
U.S. State Department said that student visa applicants would be ineligible if their social media activity indicated that they were "advocating for, sympathizing with, or persuading others to endorse or espouse terrorist activities or support a
designated foreign terrorist organization". The Trump administration has targeted some professors, such as Lebanese
Brown University professor
Rasha Alawieh, who was deported despite a court order. Students targeted for deportation include
Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the 2024
pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University and a
U.S. lawful permanent resident. To overcome his lawful permanent residency, the Trump administration has cited the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows aliens in the U.S. to be deported if the secretary of state finds that their presence could negatively impact
U.S. foreign policy. On May 28, 2025, Rubio announced that the US would "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the
Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields" and "revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong." China's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally objected to Rubio's announcement. Commenting on Rubio's announcement a day later, State department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the United States "will not tolerate the CCP's exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition." In response, Chinese students told media that they came to the U.S. for freedoms they felt they did not have back in China but that now the Trump administration is starting to resemble the strict regime they left behind.
Finance The administration announced it would lift the 2020 pause on
garnishing wages and federal payments (such as
tax refunds,
Social Security benefits) for
student loan borrowers who are in
default which could affect millions. In March 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14235 to
limit eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. In October 2025, the administration finalized revisions to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, expanding the power of the Education Department to exclude organizations that engage in activities involving a "substantial illegal purpose", including
puberty blockers for
trans youth (referred to as "chemical castration") and illegal immigration. The administration redirected around $500 million to
HBCUs and
tribal colleges and universities while cutting other programs for minority students. The Justice Department has challenged
in-state tuition for undocumented students in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia. == K–12 education ==