President Donald Trump on Thursday congratulated Brown University after it made a deal with the White House to restore its federal funding.
As part of the deal, the university will work to address antisemitic and anti-Christian sentiment on campus.
“Congratulations to Brown University on the settlement made with the United States Government. There will be no more Anti-Semitism, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-Anything Else! Woke is officially DEAD at Brown. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president wrote.
During an appearance on Fox News, Education Secretary Linda McMahon discussed the details of the settlement.
“In the settlement, Brown agrees to protect students on campus and to make sure they’re cracking down on antisemitism,” McMahon told host Laura Ingraham. “They’ve also agreed to recognize women as women and men as men—not to allow men in women’s sports—and to ensure women can have private dressing facilities, etc. They’ve also agreed to get rid of the DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] mandates in their hiring practices, and to make sure that hiring, promotions, and admissions are based on merit and not on ideology.”
Ingraham asked whether “ideological bias is a problem at all these schools” and pointed out that the faculty at many Ivy League schools are “overwhelmingly left-wing.”
“There are maybe a few conservatives scattered through. But this settlement doesn’t really impact that, right? That’s not a constitutional question,” the host said.
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“Correct. No, it’s not. And this is in no way the administration trying to control what’s taught on campuses or to impact freedom of speech,” McMahon responded. “We want universities to be what they were intended to be—places for freedom of thought, discussion, and open ideas. But not for ideological capture. There has to be balance.”
Ingraham asked whether “pro-Palestinian” or “pro-Hamas” protesters should “have a right to exist on campus?”
McMahon affirmed their right to protest. “They can protest—they just have to do it peacefully and at appropriate times. That was actually part of the Columbia agreement. They can’t block entryways to study halls and disrupt the campus. But yes, peaceful protest and open expression should absolutely be allowed,” she responded.
Education Secretary celebrates settlement with Brown University, which has agreed to address antisemitism while abandoning progressive gender ideology.
— Hotep Jeffiziah Charles🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) July 31, 2025
“We want universities to be what they were intended to be—places for freedom of thought, discussion, and open ideas. But not… pic.twitter.com/wSBMmFCp42
The Trump administration will restore over $50 million in federal research funding. In return, Brown will invest over $50 million over the next ten years into Rhode Island’s workforce development programs. The settlement will stop three investigations into the university without the school admitting any wrongdoing, The Boston Globe reported.
The agreement also includes bans on “gender-affirming” surgeries for minors, restrictions on puberty blockers, and a requirement to adhere to Trump’s executive order defining people as male or female “for women’s sports, programming, facilities, and housing.”
The school will also scrap DEI hiring practices.
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