The Trump administration is escalating its campaign against what it describes as antisemitism and unlawful diversity, equity and inclusion practices on U.S. campuses, using the threat of withdrawn federal research funding to prod universities into sweeping settlements. Columbia University last week accepted a $221 million penalty and a wide slate of admissions, academic and hiring concessions to regain access to federal grants. The administration says the deal is a model for other institutions. Brown University followed on Wednesday, agreeing to steer $50 million over the next decade into Rhode Island workforce-development programs in exchange for the reinstatement of its suspended Health and Human Services grants and the closure of federal investigations. Unlike Columbia, Brown will not pay money directly to the Treasury but must adopt government-mandated definitions of sex for athletics and health services and provide data on admissions practices. Harvard University, which has billions of dollars in federal funding at stake, is in confidential talks over a package that could cost about $500 million, according to people familiar with the discussions. Fourteen Democratic lawmakers—many of them Harvard alumni—warned the university on Friday that they would open a “rigorous” investigation if it accepts terms similar to the Columbia and Brown deals. Separately, House Republicans are scrutinising Harvard’s partnerships with Chinese institutions. The campaign is widening beyond the Ivy League. Federal agencies have frozen nearly $200 million in National Science Foundation, NIH and other grants to the University of California at Los Angeles, citing discrimination in admissions and a failure to curb antisemitic incidents. The Transportation Department, meanwhile, cancelled a $26 million grant for a Baltimore–Washington high-speed rail project. Inside the government, the National Institutes of Health is curtailing overall grant making under a new policy that emphasises projects deemed free of DEI-related content. The National Cancer Institute now expects to fund just 4% of R01 research-grant applications, down from 9%, and several health-disparities awards have been terminated. Current and former staff say Director Jay Bhattacharya has allowed such research to wither despite earlier public support for studying vulnerable populations.