Proposed settlement with UCLA is master class in extortion

Trump's administration accused the university of antisemitism and wants to dismantle all DEI initiatives

- ROBIN ABCARIAN COLUMNIST

BRIAN VAN DER BRUG Los Angeles Times L.A. COUNTY sheriff's officers patrol campus as it's cleaned up following two days of protests.

NO QUESTION, antisemitism is real, resurgent and too often conflated with criticism of the Israeli government as it has destroyed Gaza to root out Hamas.

But it beggars belief that the Trump administration is sincere when it demands UCLA pay the government more than $1 billion because, as it alleges, the school failed to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, and engages in diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

This is extortion, pure and simple.

Yes, some Jewish students were intimidated and felt unsafe during the campus protests; and yes, the school agreed to a $6-million settlement with several of them. But does anyone really believe the Trump administration cares about antisemitism?

"I was a post doc at the University of Virginia in August of 2017, I was there when the Unite the Right rally came to town," said Anna Markowitz, a UCLA associate professor of education and president of the executive board of the UCLA Faculty Assn. "I watched that group walk down the street with Nazi salutes and heard them chant horrible things. And the administration did not care one whit about that."

Oh, it was worse than that; Trump defended the neo-Nazis, infamously claiming there were "some very fine people on both sides." Just last week, Trump's nominee for the Office of Special Counsel withdrew from consideration after his offensive texts surfaced, including one in which he described having "a Nazi streak." Recently, Vice President JD Vance refused to condemn some members of the Young Republicans, who joked about gas chambers in a group chat, with one declaring, "I love Hitler." Said Vance, "Kids do stupid things, especially young boys." (According to Mother Jones, they ranged in age from 24 to 35.)