Decades Ago, Columbia Refused to Pay Trump $400 Million
<p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.9375rem; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">Donald Trump was demanding $400 million from Columbia University.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.9375rem; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">When he did not get his way, he stormed out of a meeting with university trustees and later publicly castigated the university president as “a dummy” and “a total moron.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.9375rem; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">That drama dates back 25 years.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.9375rem; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">Today, these two New York City institutions — the billionaire president of the United States and the 270-year-old Ivy League university that has cultivated <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.columbia.edu/content/columbias-nobel-laureates" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-color: var(--color-signal-editorial,#326891);">87</a> Nobel laureates — have been locked in an extraordinary clash involving free speech, academic freedom and the federal government’s role in funding higher education.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.9375rem; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">The first battle between Mr. Trump and Columbia involved the most New York of New York prizes. It was over a lucrative real estate deal, according to interviews with 17 real estate investors and former university administrators and insiders, as well as contemporaneous news articles.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant-emoji: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.875rem; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: var(--color-content-secondary,#363636); width: 600px; max-width: 100%;">Some former university officials are quietly wondering whether the ultimately unsuccessful property transaction sowed the seeds of Mr. Trump’s current focus on Columbia. His administration has demanded that the university turn over vast control of its policies and even curricular decisions in its effort to quell antisemitism on campus. It has also canceled federal grants and contracts at Columbia — valued at $400 million.</p>