Governor Newsom has created a Spiderman-pointing-at-Spiderman GIF dilemma for any state universities that comply with Trump's demands to adopt his policies or lose federal funding, as Newsom says he’ll yank their state funding.

One of the many fascist-leaning subplots of the second Trump administration is Trump’s war against universities and colleges, where he’s threatening to pull their federal funding if he feels they are too “woke” or DEI for his thin-skinned, billionaire-inheritee sensibilities. This has hit close to home here in California, where Trump has vowed to cut funding to University of California (UC) schools, and even strong-armed UC Berkeley into handing the administration a list of 160 students and professors who had some vague accusations of “antisemitism” against them.

That intimidation campaign ramped up this week, when the White House sent a letter to several universities saying they had to play by Trump’s rules to continue to receive federal grants. These new rules include capping the numbers of international students the schools admit, and pledge that they not “punish” or “belittle” conservative ideas, whatever that means.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s been comically mocking Trump on social media at pretty brazen levels lately, responded with an all-caps tweet tirade that may have been a policy announcement, or it may have been Gavin’s social team just trying to fuck with Trump some more.  

“IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY,” Newsom’s office declared on Twitter Thursday. “CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.”

Is Newsom even serious here? The all-caps thing is an obvious Trump troll, and consistent with Newsom’s currently quite frequent tweets insulting Trump.

Apparently Newsom is serious with this threat. The Chronicle got a statement out of Newsom’s spokesperson Izzy Gardon, who confirmed that Newsom would use “multiple mechanisms, including through the budget process” to cut funding for the state’s schools that play ball with Trump. “We’re fully confident in our swift ability to take action should a university bend the knee to Trump,” he added.

We should note that Trump’s letter this week was sent to just nine universities according to CBS News, and USC is the only California university on that list. (The list also includes Vanderbilt, which has raised the possibility of starting a satellite campus in SF). But you could see Trump taking this ploy nationwide if he finds the early results encouraging.

As governor, Newsom does not have the ability to direct what state universities teach. But he does have the ability to control the purse strings on state grants, so yes, cutting funding is something he could do.

The obvious question for universities caught in these dual crosshairs is whether Newsom or Trump has more money on the table for them. The Chronicle reports that the state of California's current budget has $45 billion for college and university funding. Trump had previously yanked $1.3 billion from Columbia and attempted to pull $578 million from UCLA. So yes, Newsom could go toe-to-toe with Trump’s federal government here on funding totals.

There is also a third path for the universities, a path that perhaps not enough schools are taking. Universities can also sue the Trump administration, and those schools that do tend win in court.

Related: UC Wins This Round Against Trump, Judge Reinstates $500 Million in Research Grants That Trump Yanked [SFist]

Image: Royce Hall building on University of California (UCLA) campus in Los Angeles, California, USA - May 28, 2023. UCLA is a public land-grant research university. (Getty Images)