tRUMP'S PAY-TO-PLAY SCHEME
One For You, Five For Me
The tRump administration has been holding some of our nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities hostage, demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in return for . . .administrative dominance. It’s extortion. It’s “Pay to Play”.
Here are three examples:
Columbia University-
Fines: $221M fines. $200M to U.S. Treasury, federal budget, Congress to decide how to appropriate funds. $21M to Jewish staff and victims of alleged civil-rights abuses.
Structural reforms:
1. End race-based admission targets, diversity narratives, or DEI goals.
2. Independent monitor (government) overseeing compliance with admissions, faculty hiring, and protest policies.
3. Adhering to tRump administration’s interpretation of Title IX-focus on rules around transgender athletes in women's sports.
If this looks less like reform and more like federal micromanagement, that’s because it is.
Brown University-
Fines- $50M over 10 years, directed to Rhode Island workforce development (rather than straight to government).
Structural reforms:
1. End DEI programs and admissions.
2. External audit/oversight of admissions data. Note: Brown did not accept a government monitor, unlike Columbia.
3. Banning gender-transition treatments for minors and offering separated housing/sports facilities by gender according to tRump administration federal guidance/
Harvard University- the wealthiest university in the world, is negotiating a half-billion-dollar payoff. Proof that even money and prestige don’t and won’t shield a school from this administration’s shakedown tactics.”
And this is just the beginning.
Universities are surrendering funds and autonomy to regain access to federal research grants, while also reshaping their policy and admissions structures under tRump administration’s oversight.
This is a broad strategy by the tRump administration to link federal funding with compliance with antisemitism, DEI policies, transgender issues, and protest regulations. This administration is reshaping the landscape of academic independence.
All this is “Pay to Play” in my mind.
Give a yard, they’ll take a mile. Bowing to this administration’s extortion has kicked in the door to the next round of tRump’s administration’s demands. Dictating teaching staff? State-imposed curriculums?
If tRump can dictate who teaches, what’s taught, and who gets admitted at Columbia, Brown, and Harvard, what’s to stop him from controlling the local state college your kids/grandkids are applying to?
This isn’t just a slippery slope; it’s a headlong dive into a bottomless cavern called Project 2025. If universities don’t resist now, tRump’s next demand won’t stop at admissions policies. It will dictate curriculum, censor faculty, and silence dissent. This isn’t about protecting students, it’s about controlling them.
As Charlie Sykes put it on July 30, 2025: “Trump has successfully turned the US government into the largest extortion racket in history.” #AcademicFreedom #Project2025 #TrumpExtortion #Democracy
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