Newsom threatens to cancel $45 billion in state funding for California's colleges. Trump is also cancelling some colleges' funding.

Photo above - Student protestors at the University of California are demanding free tuition. Governor Newsom is threatening to withhold $45 billion in existing funding. Can you predict how this will end?

[i]President Trump - “Do as I say, or I’ll cancel your university funding!”

Governor Newsom – “Me too. I mean, if you do what Trump sez, then I'm gonna cancel the state university funding.”[/i]

This is really happening. See link to San Francisco Chronicle, at bottom

This is a power struggle for sure. Will Trump keep his word, and pursue his anti-woke, anti-antisemitism, anti-illegal alien student agenda?

Or will Newsom get overruled by his state legislature? They might say “Okay . . . enough with your 2028 campaign posturing. We are so NOT closing down all our colleges and universities. Take a deep breath.“

This is a battle Newsom might lose. This does not mean I endorse Trump’s university viewpoints. Even if I understood them, and they weren’t changing day by day like tariffs (I just found the Apple iPad Air is exempt from tariffs even though it's assembled in Chengdu China, whose 5 auto plants are buried under those new tariffs).

As far as havens from reality like Harvard and Columbia go, the only thing I’m certain of is that I support jailing or expelling students who attack suspected Jews on campus, or are cancelling classes, or who are trashing buildings. Stick to that one, Mr Trump. I don’t view campus unisex bathrooms for consenting adults as that big a deal. Let the pro-Muslim students explain why they want the kind of restrooms which probably offend Allah, while they're delivering a beat down to some guy wearing yarmulke.

We are in day 3 of the US government shutdown. The stock market is still rockin’ it . . . the DOW is up 300+ points this week. The Nikkei Japan index was up nearly 2% yesterday. The London index (FTSE 100) up nearly 1% as well. None of this means that these places endorse our shutdown, or Trump's policies of course. Just that billionaires don’t believe the rhetoric both sides are spewing.

The US government shutdown, like California college funding, isn’t about balancing budgets. It’s a power struggle to assert dominance of political ideology.

It might be better to stay focused on the economics. Does anybody believe a $37 trillion national debt is sane? How about $45,000 tuition to the University of California? That’s like buying a Tesla Model Y and driving it off a cliff every year, for 4 years.

We can have anything we want in America, as long as we can pay for. We can’t print fake money endlessly for things which most people don't understand or use.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



Newsom threatens state funding for California universities that agree to Trump demands