SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom forcefully doubled down Wednesday on his belief that California should not give into the Trump administration’s demand that UCLA pay $1 billion to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen research funding.
Speaking at POLITICO's "The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit," Newsom said the UC Board of Regents, which has remained tight-lipped about whether it plans to negotiate with the administration or dig in for a fight, needs to “do the right thing” but understands that “they’re all scared.”
“How could you possibly accept the fine?" an exasperated governor said, referring to the billion-dollar demand or some smaller amount the regents could negotiate. "Fine for what?"
With Trump alleging UCLA has fostered a campus atmosphere hostile to Jewish students and faculty, Newsom expressed dismay that the state could pay to settle with "the guy who had dinner with Nick Fuentes telling us about antisemitism” — a reference to a far-right activist who Trump hosted at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. “Are you kidding me?”
The governor, who previously described the settlement proposal as “extortion” and threatened to sue over it, said the matter is bigger than just UCLA. It is about “anybody or any institution that disagrees with them,” he said.
The Trump administration suspended more than $500 million in research funding from UCLA in late July over allegations of antisemitism on campus. It followed with its opening bid for what it wanted to restore the money: the $1 billion payment and a host of reforms including eliminating scholarships based on race or ethnicity and a ban on the use of proxies for race in its admissions process.
The governor said he would be fine with a deal that "means nothing and has the form and substance of fog."
"But the minute we sell our souls or sell out our values, that ain’t going to happen," Newsom said.
Newsom, who sits on the regents as an ex officio member, called the demands a “false pretense” and praised the state Legislature’s Jewish caucus for “finally pushing back” when it issued a statement defending the UCs. He has previously called out two other universities, Brown and Columbia, for reaching deals with the Trump administration in recent weeks to get research funding back and said Harvard's president should resign for reportedly considering a settlement.
"Everyone's scared," Newsom said. "That's why they sold out at Columbia."
The governor added that he doubted Trump would negotiate with the UCs given that he was "mocking Harvard."
“This guy will take anything down, and he's trying to shut them down,” Newsom said. “I mean, a billion-dollar fine in UCLA shuts them down. It shuts down one of the finest research institutions in the world. But it's a consistent pattern. Any institution that cultivates individual or independent thinking is under assault. And we're going to do everything in our power to stop folks from selling out.”
Earlier in the day, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla told POLITICO he’d leave the door open for UCLA to reach a deal with Trump if it was a “minor, negligible” payment or policy change in exchange for the restoration of research funding. The UC administration has only publicly stated that it is "evaluating" the administration's proposal and called the demands "devastating" and "far-reaching."
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