The Trump administration is seeking to exert extraordinary influence over American universities by withholding the federal financial support that has flowed to campuses for decades.

President Trump and his allies contend that some schools, especially a handful of elite universities, have become bastions of antisemitism and ideological indoctrination. Though the higher education industry has acknowledged shortcomings and failures, especially since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, it has warned that reducing schools’ federal funding could backfire for American society as a whole.

University leaders fear that by threatening to withhold funding, or suspending it with little or no warning, the government is trying to stamp out academic freedom, a cornerstone of the American education system.

The Trump administration has given broad reasons for the cuts, often involving claims that the schools tolerate antisemitism. But its choice of schools and even some of its demands have sometimes confused educators and experts. Northwestern University, for example, recently released a lists of steps it had taken to combat antisemitism that closely tracked with a list of demands the Trump administration gave to Columbia University. Northwestern was targeted anyway several days later.

The issue is revealing the dollars-and-cents consequences of the tensions between campus leaders and the Trump administration. But the outcome of the underlying debate — the purpose of higher education — could shape the country for years to come.

Which schools have been targeted?

So far, seven universities have been singled out for punitive funding cuts or have been explicitly notified that their funding is in serious jeopardy. They are:

• Brown University, which the Trump administration said stood to lose $510 million.

• Columbia, which is hoping to regain about $400 million in canceled grants and contracts after it bowed to a list of demands from the federal government.

• Cornell University, the target of a cut of at least $1 billion.

• Harvard University, which has approximately $9 billion at stake. The government has sent the university a list of demands.

• Northwestern, which Trump administration officials said would be stripped of $790 million.

• The University of Pennsylvania, which saw $175 million in federal funding suspended because of its approach to a transgender athlete’s participation in 2022.

• Princeton University, which said “dozens” of grants had been suspended. The White House indicated that $210 million was at risk.

Officials at some of the universities have been puzzled by the cuts, which they sometimes learned about through social media, and insisted that they had taken action to combat antisemitism.