Trump administration investigating California university over foreign gifts
Guardian5 days
Trump Administration Targets UC Berkeley in Foreign Funding Probe
Above: The UC Berkeley campus, the city of Berkeley and San Francisco Bay, California are seen at sunset. Image copyright: Apolline Guillerot-Malick/Contributor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Spin
Left narrative
The Trump administration's assault on American universities is a calculated attack on bastions of independent thought, cynically weaponizing claims of foreign influence to justify unprecedented government control. This crusade threatens the very institutions that have powered America's innovation, security, and global leadership for generations. By strangling research funding and targeting academic freedom, they seek not reform but submission — a death knell for America's intellectual sovereignty.
Right narrative
Foreign money infiltrates America's universities at an alarming scale — over $40 billion disclosed since 1981, with billions more lurking unreported. Through direct gifts, shadowy indirect donations, tuition payments, foreign campus fees, and research grants, nations like China and Qatar purchase dangerous influence over institutions that shape our future leaders and elite culture. This clandestine flow threatens national security and warps academic priorities toward foreign interests.