The head of the federal task force to combat antisemitism dismissed “rumors” Thursday that Columbia University was nearing a deal to restore $400 million in federal funds frozen by the Trump administration, arguing that the Ivy League school was “not even close” to meeting President Trump’s demands.
“There was a rumor out there that there was a settlement approaching to restore Columbia’s $400 billion that we froze. Let me be very clear to your listeners and to the nation and to the Jewish American community. That’s not true,” task force chief Leo Terrell told John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby during an appearance on “Cats & Cosby.”
Local outlet WABC-TV and the Wall Street Journal have both reported that Columbia University was nearing a deal to meet nine preconditions set forth by the Trump administration that would allow it to consider restoring funding amounting to roughly 8% of the institution’s US-taxpayer funding.
The administration demands for “formal negotiations” regarding the elite school’s “continued financial relationship with the United States government” to move forward include the school punishing those responsible for the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall in April 2024, moving the disciplinary process to the office of the president, implementing an on-campus mask ban, formalizing an antisemitism definition and placing the school’s Middle East, South Asian and African Studies departments under “academic receivership” for at least five years, which would give someone outside of the departments the power to make decisions for the faculty.
“President Trump and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi have made it a commitment that this task force – we’re going to eradicate antisemitism at all of these schools, and I will submit to you, Rita, that’s not happening at this point at Columbia University,” Terrell said.
“I will tell you right now that Columbia has not, in my opinion, and the opinion of the Department of Justice, has not cleaned up their act regarding anti-Semitism,” he added. “I’m also telling you that there is no agreement – they’re not even close, not even close to having those funds unfrozen.”
“Jewish American students don’t feel comfortable going to that school,” Terrell said of Columbia.
Columbia University faced a Thursday deadline to agree to the preconditions, but the Trump administration has extended the deadline until the end of Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The university declined to comment on Terrell’s remarks or the status of negotiations.
The antisemitism task force head further revealed that he will soon be going on a tour of 10 universities to warn them “If you want federal funding, if you want to make sure that you are going to avoid lawsuits under Title VI, Title VII, if you want to make sure your tax status is correct, you have to allow Jewish American students to go to school without being harassed or tormented.”
“Not one of those universities on my list has met that standard,” Terrell said.
