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Gavin Newsom just nuked California’s liberal universities

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by Frank Holmes, reporter

President Donald Trump just made a big move to make colleges fairer, stronger, and more affordable—but one of the leading candidates for president in 2028 is threatening to cut off any university that doesn’t let men play on women’s sports teams or use their restrooms.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is threatening a nuclear response: Newsom will withhold state educational grants from any university that signs Trump’s new, 10-point plan to make sure taxpayers and students get their money’s worth from higher education.

Americans have to ask themselves whether Newsom objects to Trump ending extremism on campus—or whether another clause shows that the governor plans to look the other way as radical left-wing extremists plot more political assassinations like Charlie Kirk’s.

Newsom threatened to cut state funding of universities that sign the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which — among other steps — bans male athletes from switching teams by claiming to switch their sex.

“Women’s equality requires single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and fair competition, such as in sports. Institutions commit to defining and otherwise interpreting ‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘man’ according to reproductive function and biological processes,” the document reads.

Colleges who sign on also agree to get rid of affirmative action policies that discriminate against straight, white, “cisgender” people who apply for college admission or faculty positions. Administrations must freeze tuition rates for five years and let students know how likely they are to find jobs when they study for any degree.

College admissions offices would give American students the first chance at becoming graduates by limiting foreign exchange students to 15 percent of the student population, and ending universities’ role in foreign money laundering scams. University employees can’t use the classroom to air their political views or punish students who don’t share them.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote that universities who agree to these policies will be first in line for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”—but if they continue to enact liberal Ivory Tower “models and values” they will “forgo federal benefits.”

That was too much for Gavin Newsom, who screamed in all capital letters: “IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY’LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM.”

Newsom’s over-the-top reaction seems even stranger, because of one fact.

The only one of the nine universities asked to sign the compact that’s based in California is the University of Southern California.

It’s also strange, since Newsom tried to avoid a replay of last November, when transgenderism became one of the most devastating issues in the 2024 presidential campaign for Democratic candidate (and Californian) Kamala Harris.

President Donald Trump hung the issue of men in female spaces like an albatross around the donkey’s neck in an ad that told voters: “Kamala’s for They/Them. President Trump is for you.”

Newsom tried to back away from his party’s extremism on transgender issues this spring during an interview on assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk’s podcast.

“I completely agree with you on“ the topic of men defeating female athletes in sports, Newsom told Kirk. “It is an issue of fairness – it’s deeply unfair.”

Newsom is expected to get back in the transgender movement’s good graces by signing five bills promoting transgender extremism before they hit their legislative deadline on Sunday.

But it may actually be another point in the Compact that irks Newsom, and it also has to do with Charlie Kirk: Maybe Newsom doesn’t want to tone down the Left’s violent rhetoric.

The Compact says that “the freedom to debate requires conditions of civility,” including creating a campus free of all “violence, intimidation, or vandalism.”

Of course, a radical left-winger shot and assassinated Charlie Kirk during Kirk’s September 10 campus tour of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Ever since, Democrats and their far-Left allies have celebrated Kirk’s murder, because the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder opposed gun control—and Gavin Newsom’s record hasn’t exactly been encouraging.

Newsom sees attacks on ICE agents on the Golden State’s streets, and he blames President Trump.

He watches as Democrats keep lining up behind Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for state attorney general of Virginia who sent text messages fantasizing about shooting Republican Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert in the head and hoped Gilbert’s wife would watch her husband and their two children die in front of her eyes because of her position on gun control.

Somehow, Newsom rolls out an endless stream of statements attacking President Trump—but not a one so far directed as Jay Jones.

Does that explain why Gavin Newsom wants to defund California universities that agree to respect conservatives and force left-winger activists to abide by “conditions of civility” without the threat of “violence”?

Everyone should care—since numerous polls show Newsom as the front runner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

About the Author

Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”