Donald Trump’s administration announced on the 19th that it will withdraw $175 million in federal subsidies to the University of Pennsylvania, citing its policy on transgender athletes. It is observed that President Trump is in full swing attempting to curb the funding line by using a “culture war” targeting U.S. universities with progressive colors.
The White House announced the decision to cancel the federal subsidy on social media X, saying that Uppen is adopting a “policy that compels women to compete with men in sports.” However, the Washington Post said that although transgender Lia Thomas was a player on the women’s swimming team of the university in 2022, she has graduated now, and there are no additional transgender athletes.
Since President Trump signed an executive order last month banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, the Ministry of Education has been investigating violations at each university. About 10 out of 500,000 athletes belonging to the National University Sports Association (NCAA) are known to be transgender athletes. Earlier, the Trump administration also froze $400 million worth of federal subsidies and contract support at Columbia University in New York. The Ministry of Education and others claimed that Columbia University “did not respond to continuous harassment of Jewish students.” Columbia University was the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests against the war in Gaza Strip that spread in U.S. college districts last year. Earlier this month, the Trump administration tried to arrest and deport Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student who led the protest, even though he was a permanent resident of the U.S., but detained him at an immigrant detention facility in Louisiana by a court order to suspend him.
At a time when conservative groups such as the Republican Party have been attacking Ivy League universities with strong progressive tendencies, it is said that President Trump is attempting to “tame” federal subsidies with weapons. President Trump has investigated the “anti-Semitism” of universities funded by the federal government and allowed them to take measures such as subsidy cuts. In this regard, 10 universities, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University, are under investigation by the Justice Department. Cornell University and Yale University were investigated for considering race when selecting doctoral students.
Meanwhile, Politico reported that Dartmouth University recruited Matt Leimer, a former senior lawyer at the Republican National Committee who is close to Trump, as vice president of the university. Leimer had publicly supported President Trump’s measures to abolish birth citizenship.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
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