The Best Government Money Can Buy.

Consider this... all these attacks on colleges and universities are all at the behest of one man... a billionaire. He doesn't like liberal colleges so he weaponized college finding grants.

The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities

The conservative ideas behind the Trump administration’s “compact” for universities were developed in part by Marc Rowan, a wealthy financier who has sought to shape higher education.

The New York Times

By Alan Blinder and Michael C. Bender

October 3, 2025

The Trump administration shook higher education this week when it promised benefits to universities that signed a “compact” closely aligned with conservative priorities.

But much of the compact’s construction happened outside of the West Wing.

Many of the ideas included in the proposal — and, in some instances, their exact wording — came from a document circulated last winter at the behest of Marc Rowan, the billionaire financier. Mr. Rowan has been keenly interested in higher education and, as the University of Pennsylvania was mired in acrimony over antisemitism and pro-Palestinian activism in 2023, he wielded his wealth and influence to help oust his alma mater’s president.

The proposal that the government released this week called for universities to limit international students, protect conservative speech, generally require standardized testing for admissions and to adopt policies recognizing “that academic freedom is not absolute,” among other conditions. An accompanying cover letter dangled “substantial and meaningful federal grants” for schools that signed up, though those universities could also have their funding jeopardized if the Justice Department decided they had violated the agreement.

There is I think a simple word for this... extortion!

It is common for leading business figures to try to influence policy deliberations in Washington. But it has become clear in recent days that two financial titans — Mr. Rowan, who is chief executive of Apollo Global Management, and Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone — are helping shape seismic discussions related to the Trump administration’s campaign to upend American campuses.

Mr. Schwarzman has emerged as an intermediary for Harvard University in its negotiations with the federal government to end a monthslong dispute over research funding and other matters. And the ideas that flowed from Mr. Rowan and his allies are now the backbone of a potentially far-reaching administration effort to tie campus policies to Mr. Trump’s agenda and the federal government’s financial might.

When Congress funding these grants they didn't put any strings on the funding, so how can Trump impose political conditions on them?

The National Constitutional Center writes that,

Congress passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 in response to the controversy. Title X in the act is commonly referred to as the Impoundment Control Act (or ICA), and it requires the president to report to Congress when he impounds funds as a deferment (or a temporary delay) or a recission (a permanent cancellation) of spending.

Under the ICA, spending deferrals must not extend beyond the current fiscal year, and Congress can override deferrals using an expedited process. For recissions, the president must propose such actions to Congress for approval, and he can delay spending-related to recissions for 45 days. Unless Congress approves the recission request, the funds must be released for spending.

So yes, Trump can withhold funding but he has to tell Congress and Congress can override him. But this spineless Republican Congress kowtow to his every wish.

The problem is that nobody has used funding as a weapon before to this extent. Yeah, politicians have always withheld funding for their little local project but Trump & Company has made it a hatch to deny constitutional rights of the colleges. The NYT article goes on to write...

The latest iteration also proposed conditions around “single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and fair competition, such as in sports” and frozen tuition levels for five years. The version that went to universities also included a provision for select signatories to not charge tuition at all for students studying the hard sciences, and a condition that schools take steps that might include “abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

They keep piling on all types of conditions in their conservatives can think up to impose on the colleges, and many of them violate the First Amendment!

The problem is that federal grants have become the life blood of university... research grants, special grants for the disabled, and Pell Grants they became depended upon them like a drug addict. Now that is being used against them. Some courts have said "Not so fast" other courts see nothing wrong.

Just like hospitals caving-in and stopping healthcare to us because with threats to cut the federal funding.