Donald Trump called Cornell University 'a fine school' on Thursday when asked whether it had done enough to investigate an alleged gang rape at one of its fraternity houses.
The US president has criticised elite universities since his 2024 campaign, and his administration froze more than $1B (£740M) of Cornell's federal funding in April 2025.
Trump was speaking to reporters at the White House on 1 October, before leaving for Texas and Oklahoma. The question came from Gabe Gutierrez of NBC News.
Trump said he did not know much about the matter, then added: 'Cornell's a fine school, and I'm sure they'll do what's right.' The reply, a single sentence, was his first public comment on the case. He did not refer to the lawsuit or to the criminal investigation.
What Trump Was Asked About Cornell
A former student identified as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit in New York state court in mid-September. She alleges she was pressured into taking ketamine and sexually assaulted for hours by seven current and former members of the Chi Phi fraternity. The alleged assault took place at the fraternity's house in Ithaca on 19 October 2024, when she was 20. Cornell, the fraternity, and her former sorority are also defendants.
She reported the incident to Cornell police three weeks later. No criminal charges followed, and no arrests have been made. Three of the men have denied the allegations through their lawyers. The claims have not been tested in court.
Her lawyers allege that only two of the seven men were expelled, and that fraternity members were allowed to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to the university.
Cornell rejected that account in a statement on 28 September. Kyle Kimball, its vice president for university relations, said a Title IX hearing panel issued sanctions that included expulsions and suspensions. None of those charged was offered an essay as the sole consequence, he said, and any suggestion that the university failed to impose 'consequential punishments' was false. The fraternity chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus.
Special Prosecutor Named on the Day Trump Spoke
In a statement dated 28 September, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he would reopen the criminal investigation and present the case to a grand jury. He said no charges were brought in 2024 because the woman's statement to police described the drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary. Her lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, has disputed that description.
Van Houten later told the media that he had not seen the transcript of her interview with campus police before his office decided against charges.
On 1 October, the day Trump made his remark, New York Governor Kathy Hochul removed the case from Van Houten. She signed an executive order appointing Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor.
On 29 September, Hochul had called for outside counsel to review the university's response, and Cornell agreed the following day.
Trump's Record on Cornell and the Ivy League
The April 2025 freeze was imposed in connection with Title VI civil rights investigations, a senior administration official told ABC News at the time. The administration has accused elite universities of tolerating antisemitism on campus.
Cornell's dispute ended on 7 November 2025. The university agreed to pay $30M (£22.2M) to the federal government over three years and to invest a further $30M in agricultural research, a total of $60M (£44.4M). Its president, Michael Kotlikoff, said Cornell had not been found in violation of Title VI and that the agreement was not an admission of wrongdoing. The government agreed to restore funding and close its investigations.
Other Ivy League universities were also affected. The administration cancelled $400M (£296M) in grants and contracts at Columbia. It suspended $175M (£130M) at the University of Pennsylvania over its policy on transgender athletes. Trump is a graduate of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Funding was also halted at Brown and Princeton.
Trump has criticised Harvard by name. On 16 April 2025, after the university refused the administration's demands, he wrote on Truth Social that it 'teaches Hate and Stupidity' and should no longer receive federal funds. In February 2026, he said his administration was seeking $1B (£740M) in damages from Harvard.
