The Trump administration has frozen $210 million in federal research grants to Princeton University. The freeze is tied to an ongoing investigation into antisemitism on campus and also targets climate-related research that federal officials now reject.
On Tuesday, the university received formal notice from multiple agencies, specifically the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense, that funding would be put on hold. University President Christopher Eisgruber informed the campus through an email that the reason for the funding freeze was not fully explained. Still, he said Princeton would follow the law, cooperate with the investigation, and defend its academic freedom and legal rights.
The Department of Education opened a Title IV investigation into Princeton in January 2024, following a formal complaint filed by Zachary Marschall, editor-in-chief of the conservative website Campus Reform.
Marschall, who is not affiliated with Princeton, reported incidents on campus where students used phrases like “intifada” and “brick by brick, wall by wall, apartheid has got to fall” during protests. He claimed these events created a hostile environment for Jewish students. According to the Department of Education’s database, this is the only open antisemitism-related Title IV complaint at Princeton.
Princeton is one of over 50 schools currently under investigation for antisemitism by the Department of Education. However, it is not among the 10 universities the department plans to visit. That list includes Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, NYU, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern. Nonetheless, the Anti-Defamation League recently gave Princeton a D in its review of how U.S. universities are addressing antisemitism. The rating reflects what the organization considers a weak response.
This freeze affects a large amount of Princeton’s federal research funding. In the 2023–2024 fiscal year, the university received more than $455 million in federal grants and contracts. Now, $210 million of that total is on hold.
Other Ivy League schools are facing similar measures. The Trump administration recently canceled $400 million in grants to Columbia University and froze $175 million for the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, more than $9 billion in federal funding linked to Harvard University is under review. These steps follow a broader effort by the administration to hold universities accountable over antisemitism claims and challenge what officials describe as political bias in education.
Alongside the antisemitism probe, Princeton is also losing $4 million in funding for its climate research programs. The affected projects are based at the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System, a joint effort between Princeton and NOAA. The Department of Commerce stated that these research efforts promoted “exaggerated and implausible climate threats” and led to “climate anxiety” in younger generations. The agency said the programs no longer align with the current administration’s priorities.
The cuts include two five-year research projects. One focused on predicting changes in rainfall and sea levels. The other studied shifts in global water availability. A K–12 education program on climate change was also canceled. The department has not said how or where the withdrawn funds will be used.
One of the institute’s most prominent researchers is Dr. Syukuro Manabe, a 2021 Nobel Prize winner in physics for his work on climate modeling. His work has supported long-term planning in fields like farming, energy, and transportation. Critics say canceling these studies removes access to science needed for national decision-making.
The administration has also stopped funding the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which creates the federal government’s main climate impact report. In addition, a new executive order directs state and city governments to stop enforcing environmental rules that penalize fossil fuel companies for damage linked to extreme weather. Legal experts and environmental groups say the order violates existing laws.
At the same time, federal agencies like NOAA are experiencing wide internal disruption. Hundreds of NOAA workers were recently fired under a restructuring program called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Some of those fired are now being rehired, but the agency has already faced public protests outside its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Demonstrators say the cuts are slowing down critical services like weather data and environmental monitoring.
At Princeton, university officials had already been preparing for possible funding changes. In a March 19 memo to faculty, Provost Jennifer Rexford announced a hiring freeze and outlined steps to keep core research and teaching activities stable. She explained that the traditional collaboration between universities and the federal government was now facing serious strain.
President Eisgruber has publicly criticized the federal government’s actions against colleges. In an essay published in The Atlantic, he said the administration’s efforts to cut funding and interfere with university decisions are similar to political crackdowns during the Red Scare in the 1950s. He called on university leaders to defend their institutions through legal action and public pressure.
