The Trump administration froze dozens of federal research grants at Princeton University.
The suspension follows similar actions against elite universities over antisemitism allegations.
There is an ongoing lawsuit over grant suspension at Columbia which imperils key medical research.
The Trump administration has suspended dozens of federal research grants at Princeton University, Christopher L. Eisgruber, the Ivy League university’s president, announced on Tuesday.
Grants from agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Defense Department were being halted, according to a campus-wide message from Eisgruber.
“We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism,” said Eisgruber, “Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University.”
“The full rationale of this action is not yet clear,” he added.
Princeton’s funding halt marks Trump’s latest crackdown on a growing list of elite universities facing similar federal funding threats, some over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
On Monday, a federal antisemitism task force announced a sweeping review of Harvard’s nearly $9 billion in federal grants and contracts.
Earlier this month, Columbia University agreed to a series of federal demands, including stricter protest regulations and expanded campus security presence, after the government froze $400 million in grants and warned billions more could be at risk. The university’s interim president resigned shortly after the agreements.
After Columbia’s funding freeze, The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers have sued the Trump administration, saying that the cuts have terminated grants for fetal health, Alzheimer’s, and cancer research at Columbia.
Princeton’s endowment value stands at $34.1 billion toward the end of 2024 and generated a 3.9% investment gain in the previous fiscial year.
Eisgruber recently penned an essay in The Atlantic saying the Trump administration’s targeting of universities like Columbia presents “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.”
“Every American should be concerned,” he wrote.
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