In a sweeping assertion of federal power barely months after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has begun reshaping American higher education by targeting elite universities with deep funding cuts.

The most dramatic move came last week, when Trump moved to revoke $2.2 billion (€1.9 billion) in multiyear research grants for Harvard. Earlier in April, he froze nearly $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern, signaling that no institution is exempt.

The funding freeze is part of a broader campaign to shrink publicly financed science and penalize US campuses that the Trump administration has accused of ideological bias, antisemitism and failing to handle pro-Palestinian protestsin their campuses. Cuts have extended beyond higher education, affecting research in areas such as climate science, vaccine development and gender inequality.

In response, more than 100 universities issued a joint letter on April 22 denouncing what they called "unprecedented government overreach."

"We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion. We must reject the coercive use of public research funding," the letter stated.

Federal funding for elite universities dates back to the Great Depression in the early part of the 20th century, and was solidified during the Cold War.

In 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, which........

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