Trump administration seeking $1 billion settlement from UCLA 

US President Donald Trump's administration has been seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over pro-Palestinian activism.

In March, the Trump administration warned 60 universities that enforcement actions could be taken by the government if it determined they failed to address what it termed as anti-Semitism (pro-Palestine demonstrations) at the US institutions. 

Earlier this week, media reports said the Trump administration had frozen $584 million in federal funding allocated to UCLA over pro-Palestinian activism, accusing the campaigners of being “anti-Semites.”

US freezes $584 million in funding for UCLA over pro-Palestine activism

The US government freezes $584mn in funding for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over pro-Palestine activism.

University of California (UC) President James Milliken, who oversees the 10 campuses that form the University of California system, UCLA included, said the university's managers had been informed by the government on Friday that if the university paid a $1 billion settlement fee, it could settle the anti-Semitism charges levied against the UC public university system.

"As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country's greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians," Milliken said.

"Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the US economy, and protect our national security," Milliken added.

According to media reports, the Trump administration has agreed to receive the settlement fee in installments while demanding that the university also pay $172 million to a claims fund to compensate students and others affected by the university's alleged discriminatory measures.

Milliken said the management of the university, which is consistently ranked among the best public institutions in the United States, is reviewing the conditions of the proposed settlement deal.

In 2024, pro-Palestinian protests emerged on campuses at dozens of US universities, spreading from the East Coast to the West Coast to show support for the innocent people in the besieged Gaza Strip being starved and slaughtered by the zionist Israeli regime.

Academia soon became targeted by US President Donald Trump after he resumed office this year.

Trump and his right-wing camp view academia as elite, overly liberal and hostile to the kind of ethno-nationalistic ideology defended by the Republican Party

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, who frequently spars with Trump, said the UC should not give in to his administration's demands. "There's right and wrong, and we'll do the right thing." 

Newsom, who also sits on the board of regents of UC, insisted that the fate of the country depended on their move. "This is about our competitiveness. It's about the fate and future of this country. It's about our sovereignty."

"It's about so much more than the temperament of an aggrieved individual who happens to currently be president of the United States," he told reporters. "I'll do everything in my power to encourage them to do the right thing and not to become another law firm that bends on their knees, another company that sells their soul or another institution that takes a shortcut and takes the easy wrong versus the hard right."

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