Gavin Newsom Threatens Colleges That Back Trump’s Education Agenda

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to blow up billions in state funding for any university that dares sign onto President Donald Trump’s bold new “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

The Trump administration’s 10-page blueprint would upend the woke campus order. It demands schools scrap DEI mandates, end race-based admissions and hiring, restore standardized testing, freeze tuition hikes, cap foreign student enrollment, and guarantee free speech rights for conservative students. Colleges that sign would get priority access to federal research dollars, grants, and civil rights protections.

Newsom erupted in all-caps fury, warning: “IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY’LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.”

The threat isn’t empty. USC, the lone California school invited to join the compact, collected $28.4 million in Cal Grants last year. Across the state, private institutions pulled in $227 million, while UC and Cal State schools together netted $2.2 billion. All of it could be yanked under Newsom’s ultimatum.

The compact has triggered predictable meltdowns from higher-ed elites. Ted Mitchell of the American Council on Education called it a “Faustian bargain.” Former Obama Treasury Secretary Larry Summers sneered it was like “fixing a watch with a hammer.”

But Trump officials are undeterred. White House adviser May Mailman said, “Our hope is that a lot of schools see that this is highly reasonable.” The compact also defends women’s sports by requiring schools to recognize biological sex in athletics — a direct rebuke to Newsom’s gender agenda.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson blasted Newsom’s response: “Gavin Newscum should worry about the disaster he’s created in his own state.”