The Trump administration's funding fight with Columbia University
Overview · reviewed October 28, 2026
In March 2025 the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, saying the school had failed to curb antisemitism on campus during protests over the war in Gaza.[1][2]Columbia agreed to policy changes, and in July it agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government to resolve multiple investigations and restore access to billions of dollars in research funding.[3][4]
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Columbia agreed to policy changes, and in July it agreed to pay $200 million to the federal government to resolve multiple investigations and restore access to billions of dollars in research funding.[3][4]
Coverage over time
Share of tracked outlets · weekly (UTC)
25%0%
Mar 20252026this week
LeftCenterRightLighter bar: this week so far
Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 6 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.
Weekly counts, outlets and reports (8 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)
Left
Center
Right
Of tracked
Share
Receipts
Jul 21, 2025
14
22
12
48 of 190
25%
Jun 2, 2025
2
12
8
22 of 189
12%
May 19, 2025
4
5
4
13 of 197
7%
May 5, 2025
4
4
3
11 of 201
5%
Mar 24, 2025
1
1
2
4 of 194
2%
Mar 17, 2025
6
18
5
29 of 195
15%
Mar 10, 2025
0
4
3
7 of 198
4%
Mar 3, 2025
11
9
8
28 of 202
14%
Latest coverage
The newest reporting in this story's record.
Jul 22, 2025 · first reported · Headline from NBC10 Philadelphia
The administration threatened to end Columbia's federal funding permanently unless it met demands including ceding control of a department,[5] and a week later the university agreed to overhaul its protest rules and review its Middle Eastern studies department.[3] Faculty unions sued over the cancellation,[6] and Columbia laid off nearly 180 staff members.[2] In May the administration said Columbia had acted with "deliberate indifference" toward harassment of Jewish students, violating civil rights law,[7][8] before the July settlement.[4]
