California Governor Gavin Newsom rejected the Trump administration’s offer to settle claims of antisemitism at the University of California, Los Angeles for $1 billion, calling it “political extortion.”
The University of California system, which includes UCLA, had said it was reviewing the settlement offer by US President Donald Trump’s administration. The school said recently that the government had frozen $584 million in research funding over pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests at the school.
“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students — it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president,” read a statement issued on Friday from Newsom, a Democrat, and other officials, including the chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, Scott Wiener and Jesse Gabriel.
UCLA is one of a list of elite campuses where Trump, a Republican, has threatened to cut federal funds over the student protests against Israel and its military campaign in Gaza. The demonstrations have convulsed schools across the US over the past two years and have drawn allegations of antisemitism from Jewish students, faculty and donors. The White House argues that university administrations did not do enough to combat antisemitism at the protests.
The government has settled similar probes with two private Ivy League schools, Columbia University, which agreed to pay over $200 million, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million. Both also accepted certain government demands. Settlement talks with Harvard University are ongoing.
The settlement amount for UCLA, a public university, is far higher. The statement from Newsom and other officials said UCLA had taken “aggressive, concrete steps to crack down on the vile scourge of antisemitism on campus,” and that the fine would hobble the UC system.
“Trump has weaponized the Department of Justice to punish California, crush free thinking, and kneecap the greatest public university system in the world,” it said. “California will not bow to this kind of disgusting political extortion.”
Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom.
California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion. pic.twitter.com/AXMiqlyJeE
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 9, 2025
The Trump administration alleges that by allowing antisemitism during the protests, universities, including UCLA, violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.
Pro-Palestinian protesters, including some anti-Israel Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates their criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. In addition, experts as well as some American Jewish groups have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over Trump’s threats. US immigration authorities have also arrested foreign students who were involved in the protests and other anti-Israel activity.
Protesters inside the encampment set up by pro-Palestinian students and activists wrap scarves on their faces as they demonstrate on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, on May 1, 2024. (Etienne LAURENT / AFP)
UCLA emerged as a major focal point of campus protests in the spring of 2024. By late April of that year, according to a campus task force on antisemitism, protesters at a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel encampment were controlling access to parts of campus, blocking the passage of people who were wearing the Star of David or who were suspected of being Zionists.
The protests drew wider attention when a mob of counter-protesters attacked the encampment. Los Angeles’ mayor and the local Jewish community criticized the university for not immediately summoning police to break up the melee. Several pro-Israel protesters were later charged with crimes in connection with the violence.
In August 2024, a group of Jewish students who sued UCLA for failing to ensure their equal access to campus during the encampment secured a ruling in their favor by a federal judge. The task force’s 93-page report that fall said that Jews on campus were assaulted and threatened while hateful expressions, including a swastika drawn on a classroom chalkboard and a protest sign that read, “Israelis are native 2 hell,” proliferated amid the encampment.
Last month, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over the mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.
