Americanswers! What’s happening in Trump’s battle with universities?

Americast

Monday, 29 December 2025 - 29 minutes

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has started a series of high-stakes battles with America’s elite universities. Back in April, he froze $2 billion in federal grants from Harvard University and accused the college of antisemitism, "radical left" ideologies and racial bias. A US federal court has since overturned the funding cuts while other Ivy League universities have struck deals with the White House instead of going to court.In October, Justin and Anthony sat down with Inez Stepman, the education specialist whose views have inspired White House decision making when it comes to higher education in America. That discussion prompted a wave of correspondence from Americasters about the administration’s motivations for reform and its consequences for public opinion. Justin and Anthony are back for a special edition of Americanswers dedicated to the future of US universities…HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Anthony Zurcher, North America CorrespondentGET IN TOUCH:
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• Or use #AmericastThis episode was made by Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
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