President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to strip federal funding from California school districts that defy his administration’s transgender policies.
The Trump administration interprets Title IX as requiring schools to maintain separate bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams for males and females, a stance that directly conflicts with California state law allowing students to use facilities and join teams based on gender identity.
“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115066339632774609">wrote</a> on Truth Social early Thursday morning. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump’s ultimatum comes after the Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-president-means-business-trump-admin-sues-california-over-transgender-athlete-policy">sued</a> California last month for continuing to allow transgender-identifying males to compete in female sports. The suit argued that California was depriving young girls of athletic opportunities. 
“Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination. The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”
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The California Department of Education was allocated around $44 billion in federal funding for fiscal year 2025.
Aside from California, other school districts across the country could also lose funding over transgender policies, including multiple districts in Northern Virginia. The Education Department <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-places-five-northern-virginia-school-districts-high-risk-status-and-reimbursement-payment-status-violating-title-ix">said</a> this week that the Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County school districts are all in danger of losing federal funding for violating Title IX. 
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”
In February, Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">executive order</a> saying that “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-vows-large-scale-fines-on-california-after-boy-wins-girls-track-events">Trump Vows &#8216;Large Scale Fines&#8217; On California After Boy Wins Girls&#8217; Track Events</a>

Sir Keir Starmer visit to Washington DC

Trump Issues Ultimatum: California Schools Must Follow Transgender Policies Or Face Consequences

California

Department of Education

Donald Trump

Education

Executive

gender ideology

Politics

Sports

Title IX

Transgender

Transgender Athletes

A federal judge struck down the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts to crack down on DEI programs at federally funded schools, claiming the administration bypassed procedural requirements. 
Maryland District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/federal-judge-rules-education-department-race-dei-crackdown-unlawful.pdf">ruled</a> on Thursday against <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-sffa-v-harvard-109506.pdf">guidance</a> from the Education Department warning schools not to implement DEI programs that discriminate against white or Asian students. Gallagher&#8217;s ruling also applied to the Education Department&#8217;s demand that schools certify they were not discriminating through DEI programs.  
“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue in this case are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” Gallagher wrote. “But, at this stage too, it must closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. Here, it did not. And by leapfrogging important procedural requirements, the government has unwittingly run headfirst into serious constitutional problems.”
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“The administration is entitled to express its viewpoints and to promulgate policies aligned with those viewpoints. But it must do so within the procedural bounds Congress has outlined. And it may not do so at the expense of constitutional rights,” the Trump-appointed judge added. 
The ruling was prompted by a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers and other teacher groups. The guidance was first blocked back in April. 
In response, the Department of Education said that it would continue to protect students from racial discrimination across the country. 
“While the Department is disappointed in the judge’s ruling, judicial action enjoining or setting aside this guidance has not stopped our ability to enforce Title VI protections for students at an unprecedented level,” a spokesman <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/federal-judge-declares-education-departments-attempt-to-bar-diversity-programs-unlawful-00510621">said</a>. “The Department remains committed to its responsibility to uphold students’ anti-discrimination protections under the law.”
The original guidance from the department was issued in February, and state education agencies were requested to certify compliance in April. It sought to end the practices of some schools to bypass the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action and to end racially-based DEI school programs. The guidance suggested that schools could lose funding if they continued to promote DEI.  
“American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families. These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia,” <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-sffa-v-harvard-109506.pdf">the guidance read</a>. “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.”

Key Speakers At America First Agenda Summit

Judge Deals Major Blow To Trump’s Efforts To Purge DEI From Public Schools

Judge Deals Blow To Trump Admin Efforts To Crackdown On DEI At Public Schools

Courts

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Trump Administration

Education Secretary Linda McMahon was interrupted during an appearance at a conservative event on Wednesday by protestors blasting circus music and audio insults played over nearly a dozen Bluetooth speakers spread throughout the room.
The incident occurred during McMahon’s appearance at the 47th National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by Young America’s Foundation.
As McMahon attempted during a sit-down interview with YAF president and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, McMahon was interrupted mid-sentence by loud audio of a man who, among other things, accused the secretary of being a “corrupt billionaire.”
In response, Walker quipped that “apparently, the [Chinese Communist Party]” didn’t like her remarks, and that “they’re cutting into our technology.”
The audience laughed, and Walker and McMahon attempted to move on. But the interruptions did not end there.
Later, a recording of a woman ranting about “fat geriatric[s]” elicited an audible gasp from the audience. Students began to whisper to one another as the interruptions, which threatened to drown out the secretary’s comments, continued seemingly at random and from different corners of the auditorium.
Nevertheless, Walker and McMahon plowed ahead with their scheduled discussion, speaking over the chaos as YAF staffers scrambled to find and confiscate the personal audio devices.
“This is so weird,” one attendee whispered.
Event organizers collected an estimated eight Bluetooth speakers found under tables and chairs.
“This afternoon, a joyless, sore-loser leftist sought to silence the 13th Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, during her fireside chat with YAF President Governor Scott Walker at our National Conservative Student Conference,” YAF spokesman Spencer Brown told The Daily Wire.
Brendon Poteet of the University of Missouri, Columbia, told The Daily Wire that, &#8220;The first time it happened, I thought it was just a silly little YAF thing … and then it kept on happening again, and then it happened at my table.”
“I was just sitting, second row, and we noticed the Secret Service Agent inching closer and closer towards us,” he added. “That&#8217;s when I was like, &#8216;this is kind of ominous.&#8217; And one of the people found a note attached to one of the speakers.&#8221;
The Post-it note the student says he found bears the Latin phrase “Vox clamantis,” which translates to “a voice crying out.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-957857" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354-668x576.jpeg" alt="" width="668" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354-668x576.jpeg 668w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354-300x259.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354-768x662.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354-1536x1325.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/signal-2025-08-06-142354.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px" /></div>
“I didn&#8217;t think it was sabotage [at first],” said Isaac Hoilman of the University of North Carolina Asheville. “I thought the wires were messed up or something. But when it started playing clown music, I thought something was up.&#8221;
Finally, as McMahon discussed Trump’s hiring and managerial choices, Bluetooth speakers began to blare Julius Fucik’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entrance of the Gladiators</a>,&#8221; an 1897 military march that has become the  unofficial theme song for clowns and circuses.
YAF staff instructed students on the way out of the session to take their personal belongings so that “the CCP and the teachers’ unions can’t interrupt us anymore.”
The National Conservative Student Conference, which began on Monday, had not previously experienced any technical issues or interruptions.
Olivia D’Angelo is a reporter studying journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.

Linda McMahon

Leftist Agitators Disrupt Trump Official At Student Event In Washington, D.C.

Protest

Scott Walker

Washington D.C.

The University of Michigan is coming under federal scrutiny for its acceptance of hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign countries, some of which it may not have reported to the federal government.
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/umich-accepted-270m-foreign-funds-campus-reform-audit-finds-feds-launch-probe/28366">According</a> to Campus Reform, the university has received over $270 million from 38 foreign countries over the past ten years. “President Donald Trump signed an April 23 executive order titled ‘<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/">Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities</a>’ which instructs federal agencies to enforce disclosure rules and require colleges to report the ‘true amounts, sources, and purposes of foreign money’ received,” Campus Reform noted.
On July 15, Paul R. Moore, the Chief Investigative Counsel and Assistant General Counsel Office of the General Counsel U.S. Department of Education, sent a <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/university-of-michigan-section-117-investigation-letter-july-2025-110399.pdf">letter</a> to University of Michigan interim president Domenico Grasso in which he stated, “The Department’s review of UM’s Sec. 117 foreign funding disclosures reveals that incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely disclosures may have been submitted by UM, in possible violation of its foreign source funding statutory disclosure obligations.&#8221;
“UM, an ‘R1’ research institution, notes significant total research expenditures of $2.04 billion in FY24, including $1.17 billion in federal research funding from grants and contracts from and with the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, Transportation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and other federal agencies,” the letter continued.
The letter made reference to a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that Chinese nationals had recently smuggled dangerous biological materials into the U.S. for use at UM laboratories, adding:
<blockquote>
Just five days later, DOJ brought additional criminal charges in a separate matter against another UM-affiliated Chinese national for smuggling biological materials into the U.S. for use at a UM laboratory. These highly disturbing criminal charges against UM-affiliated research personnel follow UM’s decision (January 2025) to close its joint research institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 
Announcement of the closure occurred subsequent to a letter to UM from Chairman John Moolenaar (U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party) which raised serious national security concerns related to China’s ability to use the joint institute to contribute to China’s “most sensitive defense programs, including nuclear weapons, carrier rockets, satellites, nuclear submarines, and fighter jets.&#8221;
</blockquote>
“Other prominent UM officials have downplayed the vulnerability of research developed at its joint institutes with Chinese research universities,” Moore wrote. “Since January 2021, UM has submitted foreign funding disclosures valued at approximately $375 million and over 20% of those disclosures – approximately $86 million – were submitted in an untimely manner. Additionally, many of UM’s disclosure reports appear to include transactions in which the counterparty was erroneously identified by UM as nongovernmental.”

University of Michigan

University Of Michigan Under Federal Investigation Over Receiving Foreign Funding

Foreign Funding

World

Federal funds earmarked for increasing “the security and prosperity of the United States” bankrolled the work of the father of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani that would seem to do the opposite.
Columbia University’s Middle East Institute applied for the Department of Education’s “National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships” money based on its employment of professors including Mahmood Mamdani, who it called senior faculty, highlighting his recent work on “colonialism” and “native as political identity,” and his “courses on Islam, state violence, and international relations.”
The <a href="https://iris.ed.gov/downloads/applications/P015A180080/P015A180080_GrantApplication.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">application</a> said that Columbia should get taxpayer money because its international professors would shape the views of Americans who would go on to work for the United States government. It &#8220;specifically trains students for employment in positions in the government (State, Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence agencies, and Congressional Offices),” it said.
The Middle East unit at the lavishly endowed private university asked for more than $1 million from taxpayers to fund the professors&#8217; salaries and other costs for four years under the National Resource Centers program, and $1.6 million for &#8220;institutional payments&#8221; and &#8220;subsistence allowance&#8221; for students under the Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship. Between 2018 and 2024, Columbia University as a whole received nearly $12 million in grants from both programs, with nearly $4 million specifically for the Middle East program, according to data compiled by spending watchdog OpenTheBooks.
That means even as Columbia this week agreed to pay a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$200 million settlement</a> to the federal government and $20 million to Jewish employees it wronged with its culture of anti-Americanism and antisemitism, the federal government has been paying it to shape federal employees and diplomats.
When it comes to the Karl Marx-quoting prospective mayor of New York, who would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/given-three-chances-zohran-mamdani-wont-condemn-calls-to-globalize-the-intifada?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Given+Three+Chances%2C+Zohran+Mamdani+Won’t+Condemn+Calls+To+‘Globalize+The+Intifada’">not condemn</a> the phrase “globalize the intifada,” the son’s views appear to have been shaped by his father. In May 2021, Professor Mamdani <a href="https://x.com/mm1124?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>: “This is not a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We are witnessing something far more meaningful, the birth of the Third Intifadah against settler-colonialism!”
Even though the United States took in the elder Mamdani after he was cast out of Uganda by a dictator and made him a wealthy university professor, Mamdani&#8217;s 2020 book, &#8220;Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities,&#8221; criticizes America as oppressive, according to an interview with <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/mahmood-mamdani-nation-state-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nation</a>. The book reaches back hundreds of years to complain of &#8220;the genocide of Native Americans by Europeans&#8221; and conversion of Muslims by Christians, and casts &#8220;the founding of the state of Israel&#8221; as an act &#8220;of extreme political violence undertaken to create ethnically homogeneous states.&#8221;
He seemed to suggest to The Nation that the cure for Hamas violence was giving in to terrorists.
&#8220;You can fill an unlimited number of jails [with] perpetrators, but it will not bring a solution to the problem unless you acknowledge that the problem is more political than criminal, and that when it comes to political conflicts and political violence, adversaries mobilize around issues,&#8221; Mamdani wrote.
In his 2004 book &#8220;Good Muslim, Bad Muslim,&#8221; he made a similar argument, writing: &#8220;Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_891841" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-891841" class="size-large wp-image-891841" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-864x576.jpg" alt="Columbia University Expels, Revokes Degrees From Students Who Seized Campus Building" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2150306027-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Columbia University. Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images</div>
The professor <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/12/us-news/mamdanis-dad-part-of-anti-israel-group-sympathetic-to-suicide-bombers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sits</a> on an advisory council whose goal is &#8220;to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel&#8217;s genocide in Gaza&#8221; — a position that conflicts with that of the U.S. under Democrat and Republican administrations.
Columbia University also used Professor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doe-program-meant-to-boost-national-security-funds-anti-american-professors-study-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Joseph Massad</a> as a selling point for federal money. Massad called Hamas’ October 7 attack “a stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.” According to the Middle East Forum, students said Massad “takes a categorically anti-U.S. tack at every possible opportunity,” and lists “the West’s various cultural crimes ad nauseam.”
George Washington University, located near the State Department’s headquarters, received millions of dollars in Middle East Foreign Language and Area Studies funding from the Department of Education, even as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-washington-university-antisemitism-lawsuit?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=12&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=U.S.+Diplomat+Training+Ground+Let+Antisemites+Take+Over+Its+Faculty%2C+Lawsuit+Says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> said it let an anti-Israel activist group operate out of its international affairs school, leading to rampant antisemitism on a campus where more than one in four students is Jewish.
Prosecutors said in 2019 that a Texas-born woman charged with spying for Iran had her radicalization “<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/18/iran-spy-george-washington-university-muslim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accelerated while she was in graduate school</a>” at George Washington University, where she earned a master’s degree in its Middle East Studies program.
Also in 2019, the first Trump administration threatened the University of North Carolina and Duke University for their use of the funds, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-demands-unc-duke-revise-joint-middle/story?id=65754681" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> that &#8220;It seems clear foreign language instruction and area studies advancing the security and economic stability of the United States have taken &#8216;a back seat&#8217; to other priorities at the Duke-UNC CMES.&#8221; But little seems to have changed sector-wide.
<a href="https://www.openthebooks.com">OpenTheBooks</a> CEO John Hart said that the Department of Education’s persistent funneling of millions of dollars for professors who cultivate anti-American sentiment, using funds intended to do the opposite, shows that the National Resource Centers and Foreign Language and Area Studies program, if not the department as a whole, should be abolished.
&#8220;Professor Mamdani&#8217;s embrace of faddish, faculty lounge DEI theories on &#8216;decolonialism&#8217; illustrates why the Department of Education needs to be eliminated or dramatically downsized,&#8221; Hart said. &#8220;I support Professor Mamdani&#8217;s free speech rights, and the rights of his son to call for &#8216;seizing the means of production,&#8217; but that does not mean either are entitled to advance their radical views with taxpayer subsidies.&#8221;

New York City Mayoral Candidates Campaign Ahead Of Primary Election

Federal Money Meant For Training Diplomats Bankrolled Mamdani’s Father’s Anti-Americanism

Anti-Semitism

Columbia University

New York

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Vanderbilt University administrator was caught on camera admitting that the school is actively pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in violation of President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive action cracking down on colleges pushing the leftist DEI agenda.
G.L. Black, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, said last month that the school remains &#8220;thoughtful around DEI work&#8221; and its &#8220;focus on belonging and building communities and sustaining communities and access and resources,&#8221; according to a video obtained by The Daily Wire.
&#8220;All the things that I would say are components of DEI work are part of what we do,&#8221; Black added. &#8220;Even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Footage obtained by The Daily Wire shows the <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a> Vice Provost for Student Affairs admitting that the university continues to push DEI, &#8220;even if we don&#8217;t label everything as DEI work.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/MZbv8enIgf">pic.twitter.com/MZbv8enIgf</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1948423032411688999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Along with being nationally recognized for its pre-law and business programs, Vanderbilt — located in Nashville, Tennessee — is also a leading medical school, <a href="https://news.vumc.org/2024/03/11/school-of-medicine-in-top-10-in-nih-funding-survey-2/#:~:text=Vanderbilt%20University%20School%20of%20Medicine,of%20the%20last%2010%20years.">receiving</a> hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Last year, Vanderbilt ranked 10th in the country in total research support from the NIH.
After taking office in January, President Trump signed multiple executive orders targeting DEI practices in the federal government and at federally funded colleges and universities. In one executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">order</a>, Trump blasted DEI policies, saying they &#8220;undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.&#8221;
Vanderbilt told The Daily Wire that it remains &#8220;fully compliant with all applicable federal and state laws&#8221; and added that it is &#8220;aware of recent covert recordings by external groups on university campuses nationwide.&#8221;
&#8220;Any comments by individual employees that suggest otherwise do not reflect university policy and are being reviewed through appropriate channels,&#8221; the university said.
Vice Provost Black did not return a request to comment from The Daily Wire.
After publication of this article, Vanderbilt released a statement saying that it hired the law firm Baker Donelson, which &#8220;will be tasked with reviewing the specific circumstances related to the recordings and identifying steps the university can take to ensure all employees fully understand the university’s policies and consistently act in accordance.&#8221;
&#8220;The university will review the findings and recommendations of the report and take any appropriate follow-up actions,&#8221; the statement added. &#8220;As part of our protocol, staff involved will step back from regular responsibilities to allow the review to unfold.&#8221;
The Education Department told The Daily Wire that Vanderbilt is already under investigation &#8220;for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.&#8221; That <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0">investigation</a>, which was announced in March, also targets 44 other universities nationwide. The Education Department alleges that Vanderbilt&#8217;s PhD Project, which focuses on providing networking opportunities for PhD students, “limits eligibility based on the race of the participants.”
&#8220;We expect all academic institutions that receive taxpayer support to abide by federal law and will continue to vigorously hold violators accountable,&#8221; the Education Department added.
Another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught on camera saying that the university&#8217;s DEI agenda has remained unchanged, even if the name has changed, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">reported</a>. She said the new names for DEI help &#8220;clue people in.&#8221;
&#8220;At one point, you know, everybody, like different universities, were under investigation for their, like, DEI practices and stuff like that. So, that&#8217;s why I think the naming has changed,&#8221; said Ivie Carmouche, an academic coach at the university&#8217;s Center for Student Wellbeing.
&#8220;We&#8217;re in the Center for Student Wellbeing — like I said, we have things that clue people in and let people know that this is a safe space for everybody,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Belonging and Communities is like as close to that DEI work you can probably get. Previously, they were the Center for Social Justice and Identities.&#8221;
Yet another Vanderbilt employee was recently caught discussing the school&#8217;s DEI policies and ripping Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.
&#8220;We have this one, gosh I think she&#8217;s a representative or something like that, and I just heard that she may run for governor. And I&#8217;m going, oh God, help us,&#8221; said Janet Roberts, Vanderbilt&#8217;s Peabody Facilities Manager. &#8220;She&#8217;s ridiculous.&#8221;
&#8220;We are heavily supported by federal funding &#8230; we&#8217;re not advertising diversity and inclusion lectures,&#8221; Roberts added. &#8220;We&#8217;re flying under the radar.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨BUSTED: <a href="https://twitter.com/VanderbiltU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VanderbiltU</a>&#39;s Janet Roberts was CAUGHT ON CAMERA disparaging Sen. Marsha Blackburn and hiding the school&#39;s DEI practices. 
&quot;God help us&#8230;[<a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarshaBlackburn</a>&#39;s] ridiculous&quot;
&quot;We are heavily supported by federal funding&#8230;[so] we&#39;re not advertising diversity and… <a href="https://t.co/CIxV6FCrwe">pic.twitter.com/CIxV6FCrwe</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1948057680871886969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Blackburn on Wednesday wrote to Vanderbilt University Chancellor Dr. Daniel Diermeier to express her &#8220;concern regarding reports that Vanderbilt University is concealing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs instead of fully complying with President Trump’s executive action to end wasteful DEI programs in educational institutions,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-blackburn-warns-tennessee-universities-against-hiding-dei-programs-behind-coded-language">reported</a>.
&#8220;Renaming woke DEI programs to circumvent compliance and public scrutiny degrades the educational experience of your students and the trust placed in institutions of higher education like Vanderbilt,&#8221; Blackburn added. &#8220;As a beneficiary of federal funding, Vanderbilt has a responsibility to align with the President’s executive order and return to a focus on providing quality education to your students. Instead of rebranding harmful, woke DEI initiatives, woke DEI initiatives, Vanderbilt should focus on the important work of research and workforce development that the institution does so well.&#8221;
Administrators at two other Tennessee universities, the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-dei-efforts-were-rebranded-2-red-state-colleges-skirt-trump-orders-staffers-admit">University of Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/07/16/belmont-university-is-hiding-illegal-aliens-on-campus-n2659728">Belmont University</a>, were recently caught on camera discussing their respective institutions&#8217; DEI goals.
This article has been updated to include an additional statement from Vanderbilt.

Vanderbilt

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Vanderbilt Administrator Caught Saying DEI Remains ‘Part Of What We Do’

Nashville

Tennessee

Universities

Vanderbilt University

With 2028 in his sights, Gavin Newsom goes on offense – attacking red states and defending his leadership in California. Inflation ticks up fueling President Trump’s calls for an interest rate cut. And, Trump gets the go-ahead for layoffs at the Department of Education.
It’s Wednesday, July 16, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here: 
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Newsom Eyes 2028</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947551" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_04.Still002.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be ramping up for a presidential run, while his state of California continues to battle a number of crises.
Last week, Governor Newsom visited South Carolina for a two-day tour, meeting with local Democrat leaders and voters. He said he was there to discuss federal health care cuts, but it’s clear this was political &#8212; South Carolina might be a red state, but it will be the first state on the schedule in Democrats’ 2028 presidential primaries.
“[Republicans are] banning speech, in classrooms, but also in the boardrooms,” Newsom told South Carolina voters in what, to an outsider observer, sounded very much like stump speech. “DEI, ESG, CRT – anything with three letters they seem to ban &#8230; what we&#8217;re experiencing is America in reverse; they&#8217;re trying to bring us back to a pre-1960s world, on voting rights, on civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights.”
Since 2024, Newsom has launched his own podcast and invited several prominent right-of-center guests on his show, including Trump loyalists Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, in what appears to be an attempt to reach younger voters and appear more moderate. Newsom has also proposed limiting free health care coverage for illegals, and suggested he’s not totally on-board with males who identify as transgender in female sports. More recently, he appeared on &#8220;The Shawn Ryan Podcast&#8221; – which is generally viewed as right-of-center. During the<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BBq3Q_fHSU"> 4 hour-long episode</a>, Newsom said he was directing an “objective review” of California COVID policies. California had some of the strictest lockdown orders in the nation.
However, Newsom has been a very vocal critic of the Trump administration and has sparred with the president on numerous issues – from disaster response to immigration enforcement to environmental policies. Newsom has also defended the policies of California and other Democratic strongholds, balancing attempts to appeal to centrist voters with the need to defend his progressive record and anti-Trump bonafides.
“[California] provided $83.1 billion more than we received from the federal government,” Newsom told Ryan. “Texas took $71.1 billion. I’m not saying that to bash Texas, but you know what? Pretty <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly80zlk1lyo">proud</a> of my godd*** state.”
California is the most populous state in the country and it has an <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-04-30/californias-economy-is-now-the-4th-largest-in-the-world-or-is-it">economy</a> larger than almost every other nation on Earth – its population is roughly the size of Canada’s and its economy is twice as large. That being said, despite being home to ~12% of the U.S. population, California accounts for <a href="https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/">~25%</a> of America’s homeless, and has the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/affordability/cost-living">highest cost of living</a> of any state. <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/">Gas prices</a> in particular are the highest in the country – this July, Californians are paying ~$4.52 per gallon compared to the national average of $3.15.
<h2>Inflation Up, Interest Rates &#8230; Down?</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947549" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_13.Still001.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: Inflation ticked up slightly last month, as President Trump continues to pressure the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
When President Trump took office, economists offered apocalyptic warnings that his trade policy — specifically tariffs — would cause inflation to spike. Month after month, though, inflation fell significantly below expectations.
But on Tuesday, the latest report showed rates going ever so slightly up. Consumer prices were up 2.7% compared to a year earlier, while core inflation was at 2.9%. The goods most impacted were natural gas, coffee, and beef — all of which were up 10% compared to last year. While gasoline, televisions, and smartphones were all down ~10% on average.
“I would say that in general, the inflation numbers have been absolutely fantastic,” Joe Lavorgna, a senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, told The Daily Wire. “They&#8217;ve been much lower than virtually everybody, perhaps outside the administration, had thought. There&#8217;s really been no noticeable impact of tariffs at all.”
Critics say this uptick is just the beginning — they believe companies are trying to hold off on price increases until the president sets his final tariff rates in September, at which point prices could really take off. They argue there’s no way for businesses to pay double digit tariffs for imports without passing at least some of that cost on to consumers. To that point, last month, furniture, toys, and clothing all saw relatively significant price increases — those are all items particularly sensitive to tariffs.
Context: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/us-inflation-rate-by-president-8546447">Year-over-year inflation</a> hit a 40-year peak under Biden in 2022, and the Biden administration oversaw an average annual rise in prices of ~4.95% per year, compared to the 2.46% average during Trump’s first term.
<h2>Downsizing The Department Of Education</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-947553" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_04.Still003.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The Supreme Court says President Trump can move forward with mass layoffs at the Education Department.
The court voted 6-3 along ideological lines on Monday to block a lower court’s order — a federal judge in Boston said in May that about 1,400 employees of the Education Department must be allowed to return to work after they were fired in mass layoffs earlier this year. Now the Trump administration will be able to fire them, at least while the rest of the legal challenge plays out.
“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground,” Trump said in a celebratory post to <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114854251111136308">Truth Social</a>. “But we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE. America’s Students will be the best, brightest, and most Highly Educated anywhere in the World.”
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf">blasted</a> the conservative majority, describing their decision as “indefensible.” Sotomayor argued that Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval. During his 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to shutter the Department of Education, but eliminating the department entirely would require an act of Congress – his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">executive order</a> dismantles it as much as possible in the meantime. The other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, joined Sotomayor’s dissent.
Critics have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">pointed</a> out that the Education Department doesn’t do much educating. Though it spends $80 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, it has no say over public school curriculums, which are decided at the state and local levels. Instead, it doles out $18.4 billion annually for Title I, the low-income school district program, and $15.5 billion for special education. It also enforces certain Title IX civil rights laws and sets the rules for colleges to participate in the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program. The Trump administration says other departments are better equipped to manage these programs.
And … under the Trump administration, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-cuts-over-600-million-divisive-teacher-training-grants">terminated</a> over $600 million in grants for training teachers in “divisive ideologies” including social justice activism, anti-racism, and recruiting teachers based on race.

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Morning Brief: Newsom Eyes 2028, Inflation Data, SCOTUS Okays Education Dept Downsizing

Gavin Newsom

Inflation

Supreme Court

President Donald Trump&#8217;s Education Department opened an <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-opens-foreign-funding-investigation-university-of-michigan">investigation</a> into the University of Michigan&#8217;s foreign funding on Tuesday, weeks after two Chinese nationals with ties to the university were charged by the Department of Justice for smuggling biohazards into the United States.
Michigan has a &#8220;history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence&#8221; and &#8220;recent reports reveal that UM’s research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage,&#8221; according to the Education Department&#8217;s Office of General Counsel (OGC) Chief Investigative Counsel Paul Moore. The Department of Education said that it will look into whether UM is in compliance with federal law after &#8220;a review of the university’s foreign reports revealed inaccurate and incomplete disclosures.&#8221;
&#8220;Unfortunately, tens of millions of dollars in foreign funding in UM’s disclosure reports have been reported in an untimely manner and appear to erroneously identify some of UM’s foreign funders as ‘nongovernmental entities,’ even though the foreign funders seem to be directly affiliated with foreign governments,&#8221; Moore said. &#8220;OGC will vigorously investigate this matter to ensure that the American people know the true scope of foreign funding and influence on our campuses.”
The Education Department is demanding that UM hand over tax records, documents, and lists of all gifts detailing any agreement with foreign governments within 30 days. The Trump administration also wants the names and contact information &#8220;of all university research personnel and contract personnel, undergraduate and graduate, involved in bilateral or multilateral research collaborations with non-U.S. research institutions.&#8221;
&#8220;Today’s investigation into UM reflects the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to hold colleges and universities accountable for failing to comply with federal disclosure laws on foreign funding, consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities,&#8221; the department stated.
Last month, two Chinese scholars at the university were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/alarming-pattern-another-chinese-national-arrested-for-smuggling-biological-materials-into-u-s">arrested</a> and charged by the DOJ for attempting to smuggle “biological materials” that could potentially wipe out crops into a laboratory at Michigan. The DOJ said the arrests are &#8220;part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security.&#8221; Michigan, which <a href="https://research.umich.edu/news-and-issues/research-annual-reports/fy24-research-annual-report/fy24-news-release/">boasts</a> of being one of the top public research schools in the world, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-policies-under-review-after-chinese-researchers-charged-with-smuggling-biohazards?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=University+Policies+Under+Review+After+Chinese+Researchers+Charged+With+Smuggling+Biohazards">said</a> last month that it was “actively reviewing all relevant policies” after the arrests of the Chinese nationals.
FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-arrest-chinese-scholar-for-attempting-to-smuggle-pathogen-used-for-agroterrorism-into-u-s">called</a> the arrests &#8220;a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences… putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.&#8221;
Earlier this year, UM ended its partnership with the Chinese Shanghai Jiao Tong University over national security concerns after the FBI <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/us/5-chinese-nationals-charged-with-covering-up-midnight-visit-to-michigan-military-site">said</a> that five Chinese UM students attempted to mislead investigators about a suspicious late-night trip they took to a Michigan military base in 2023.

Michigan

Trump Admin Probes University’s Foreign Funding After Chinese Biohazard Smuggling Arrests

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Investigation

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The Supreme Court decided Monday that President Donald Trump can go ahead with dismantling the Education Department in the latest victory for the administration at the high court.
The court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to block a federal judge&#8217;s order to reinstate about 1,400 employees who were fired in mass layoffs at the Education Department earlier this year.
In March, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, following through on a key campaign promise to strengthen parental rights and improve academic outcomes across the country.
Also that month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon laid off about half of her department&#8217;s workforce.
The administration was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-blocks-dismantling-of-education-department-orders-fired-workers-back">hit</a> with two lawsuits, one filed by a pair of Massachusetts school districts and the American Federation of Teachers union, and the other filed by 21 Democratic attorneys general.
In May, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/politics/education-department-judge-ruling">blocked</a> the administration’s order and said the fired employees must be allowed to return to work.
His ruling is now on hold while the legal challenge continues, but the administration is cleared to proceed with the layoffs for now.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1203_pol1.pdf">wrote</a> a dissent accusing the conservative justices of making an &#8220;indefensible&#8221; decision, arguing that Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval.
To eliminate the Department of Education outright, Trump would need an act of Congress, but his executive order dismantles the department as much as possible in the meantime.
&#8220;When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,&#8221; Sotomayor wrote.
&#8220;The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,&#8221; the liberal justice wrote.
The other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, joined Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent.
“Everybody knows it’s right. The Democrats know it’s right,” Trump said just before signing the order. “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs, and this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work. Absolutely, it’s going to work.”
Critics have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education">pointed</a> out that the Education Department doesn’t do much educating. Though it spends $80 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, it has no say over public school curriculums, which are decided at the state and local levels. Instead, it doles out $18.4 billion annually for Title I, the low-income school district program, and $15.5 billion for special education. It also enforces certain Title IX civil rights laws and sets the rules for colleges to participate in the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program.
Under the Trump administration, the Education Department also <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-cuts-over-600-million-divisive-teacher-training-grants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terminated</a> over $600 million in grants for training teachers in “divisive ideologies” including social justice activism, anti-racism, and recruiting teachers based on race.
Frustration with public schools reached a boiling point over the last several years. During the pandemic, parents pleaded with schools to open the classrooms and stop requiring face masks on children. After COVID, parents complained of crippling learning loss, schools hiding children’s gender identity changes, and teachers pushing controversial ideologies like Critical Race Theory.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-INAUGURATION

Supreme Court Greenlights Trump’s Education Department Layoffs

The Department of Education is ending a Clinton-era rule allowing illegal aliens access to federally funded tuition programs.
<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/07/10/exclusive-trumps-ed-dept-ends-free-tuition-for-illegals/">According</a> to The Daily Caller, the Trump administration argues that the policy, which funds career, technical, and adult education programs, violates the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). The Education Department notified postsecondary education programs that the rule would no longer apply and declared that providers have “obligations to verify the eligibility of participants.”
This was one of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/taxpayer-funded-benefits-are-for-american-citizens-not-illegals/">several</a> such moves the White House announced today. The Department of Health and Human Services &#8220;is restricting illegal aliens from 13 additional public programs, including Head Start,&#8221; while the Labor Department &#8220;is barring illegal aliens from accessing federal workforce development resources and grants.&#8221;
According to a White House fact sheet, the cuts save &#8220;roughly $40 billion in benefits for American citizens, overturns decades of bureaucratic defiance and builds on President Trump’s executive order directing an END to the subsidization of open borders.&#8221;
“Past presidents sat by and allowed illegal aliens to steal public benefits at the expense of hardworking American taxpayers — that ends now,&#8221; White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Under President Trump, it’s America first always.”
PRWORA previously exclusively allocated the use of federal funds to American citizens, permanent residents, and a small category of “qualified aliens” (e.g., refugees, asylees). However, the Clinton administration exempted postsecondary programs from the rule. The Trump Education Department stated that the exemption “mischaracterized the law by creating artificial distinctions between federal benefit programs based upon the method of assistance.”
In line with PRWORA, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-ends-taxpayer-subsidization-of-postsecondary-education-illegal-aliens">said</a> if the federal government is going to fund postsecondary education programs, it “should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities,” she said. “The Department will ensure that taxpayer funds are reserved for citizens and individuals who have entered our country through legal means who meet federal eligibility criteria.”
The Trump administration has been cracking down on states that provide benefits to illegals in education.
On June 30, it announced the revocation of nearly $7 billion in federal grants, part of which went toward teaching English as a second language. The administration argued that the money was being used to push a “radical left wing agenda.”
Despite threats from the administration, some schools continue to provide benefits for illegals and protect them from deportation.
The Education Department’s new interpretation of the Clinton-era rule will take effect on August 9, 2025.

Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff

Trump’s Dept Of Education Shuts Door On Free Tuition For Illegals

Bill Clinton

illegal alien

illegal immigrants

Illegals

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled Wednesday that California violated Title IX by allowing men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-finds-california-department-of-education-and-california-interscholastic-federation-violation-of-title-ix">announced</a> the results of the office’s investigation on Wednesday.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions.”
“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” McMahon said. “The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” she added.
<a href="https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/title-ix-and-sex-discrimination">Title IX</a> “prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.”
President Donald Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">executive order</a> in January to formally recognize only two genders, based on a “fundamental and incontrovertible” reality. Under this framework, male participation in women’s sports counts as sex discrimination under Title IX. 
The following month, Trump signed another executive order to remove funding from states that violate Title IX. 
The California Interscholastic Federation responded in February by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/california-plans-continue-allowing-trans-athletes-compete-girls-sports-despite-trump-executive-order">declaring</a> it would continue to allow trans athletes to compete alongside women in accordance with state law.
 &#8220;The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences…consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records.”
California has 10 days to comply with Title IX and Trump’s executive order, or it will face “imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings,” and removal of federal education funds, the Education Department says.
The Office fo Civil Rights has also instructed California to “restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions,” and sent a personalized letter of apology to each female athlete affected, “for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”
The state must also propose a monitoring plan to ensure that it continues to abide by Title IX.
California receives a tremendous amount of federal funding. In 2022, the state <a href="https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-money-does-the-federal-government-provide-state-and-local-governments/state/california/">received</a> over $161 billion. Residents say they won’t look kindly on Newsom if he puts these funds at risk.
“Without these federal funds, California’s budget crisis would dramatically worsen, and California’s most vulnerable students would stand to lose crucial programs and support,” writes the <a href="https://californiapolicycenter.org/california-accepts-billions-in-federal-funds-for-education-while-defying-federal-law/">California Policy Center</a>. 
“Newsom and the California Department of Education should reassess their priorities and consider what California families want most: a quality education for the next generation.”

Department of Education Says California Violated Title IX, Threatens Legal Action

Women's sports

An education watchdog asked the Trump administration to crack down on one of the largest all-women’s colleges in the country because it admits transgender-identifying males and maintains restrooms. 
Defending Education filed a civil rights <a href="https://defendinged.org/complaints/ocr-complaint-smith-college/">complaint</a> on Friday alleging that Smith College’s admissions, discrimination, and restroom policies violate federal law. The complaint urges the department to investigate Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, for discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX. 
The complaint also argues that the university policies defy President Donald Trump’s executive orders combating gender ideology and the Education Department’s <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-enforce-2020-title-ix-rule-protecting-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guidance</a> that Title IX does not include gender identity as a protected class. 
“Discrimination based on gender identity is not the same as discrimination based on sex under Title IX, as this Department well knows, and the Supreme Court has never held it is,” Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry wrote in the complaint. “In other words, to the extent Smith’s accommodations for so-called gender identity encroach upon sex-specific programs and spaces, it is in violation of Title IX.”
The complaint also says that the school is violating federal policy by allowing males who identify as females to take the place of females in admissions. For the 2023-2024 school year, Smith only admitted around 20% of those who applied. 
Its policies make clear that the historically all-women’s college allows men to enter so long as they identify as transgender. 
“People who identify as women—cis, trans and nonbinary women—are eligible to apply to Smith,” the college <a href="https://www.smith.edu/your-campus/offices-services/equity-inclusion/gender-identity-expression">explains</a>. “Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”
The decision to admit males was first made in 2015 after Smith <a href="https://www.smith.edu/president-kathleen-mccartney/letters/2014-15/admission-policy-announcement">conducted</a> a year-long study group on the topic. 
“Smith has students, faculty and staff who are trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming. Smith students are here to engage with each other socially and academically in respectful ways, and our community values the range of identities that the student body represents,&#8221; Smith says. 
The college says that it is expanding more of its facilities to allow men into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. 
“Every single-occupancy restroom on campus is designated all-gender, and more and more multi-stall bathrooms are as well,” the college notes, adding that it has “an all-gender locker room in the athletic facilities, with private showering and changing areas.”
The complaint flagged other aspects of Smith’s embrace of gender ideology, including the Schacht Center for Health and Wellness&#8217; commitment to providing “gender-affirming primary care, including hormone therapy, labs and specialty consultations and referrals for students interested in surgeries,” <a href="https://thesophian.com/gender-affirming-care-at-the-schacht-center-amid-trump-bans/">according</a> to the college’s independent student newspaper. 
Defending Education would like to see the Education Department, which has pushed for schools to abandon gender ideology, address the &#8220;unlawful&#8221; policies at Smith. 
“At a minimum, then, Smith’s gender-identity-based Equal Opportunity Policy; its admissions policy, which accepts natal men in lieu of similarly situated female applicants; and its all-gender restroom and locker room policies, which divest female students of their privacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity, all appear to violate Title IX,” Perry wrote in the complaint.
In a statement shared with The Daily Wire, Perry added that it remains important to fight for girls and women 53 years after the passage of Title IX.
“On the anniversary of Title IX, it bears remembering that Title IX was passed after an extensive campaign from women&#8217;s rights activists and a federal court decision holding that high school girls were not entitled to the same athletic opportunities as boys. Yet today, some institutions of higher education, including those that hold themselves out to be single-sex, appear to adhere to the notion that sex is fungible &#8212; even something that arch feminist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote was false.&#8221;
&#8220;Our organization is keenly interested in ensuring equality of educational opportunity for all students, and it is our hope that when assessing the &#8216;female-only&#8217; policies of colleges like Smith, the Department of Education will take a closer look at that college&#8217;s possible attempts to rewrite Title IX, and allow transgender-identified males access to women&#8217;s-only spaces and admission slots,&#8221; Perry said. &#8220;Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. Today and always, Title IX is worth celebrating, protecting, and enforcing so that men and women can truly be equal&#8211;and equally protected&#8211;in American education.”

Smith College campus, a women’s liberal arts college

All-Women’s College Breaking The Law By Admitting Trans-Identifying Men: Complaint

Massachusetts

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