The Trump administration’s settlement with Columbia clarifies the stakes for anyone weighing whether to fight its demands or concede.

As a real-estate mogul, Trump long ago perfected the art of imposing his will through aggressive — and expensive — legal maneuvering. But no one else has ever really used it as president.

On Wednesday, Columbia University and the Trump administration announced that they had agreed to a deal to restore federal hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding to the school in exchange for a number of concessions by Columbia,

Talks in Washington. An expert on negotiation. A balancing act. The university chose cooperation over litigation, a strategy both pilloried and praised.

A deal between Columbia University and the Trump administration calls for the Ivy League school to pay more than $220 million to resolve multiple federal investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws.

Ultimately, we win that case. And the bottom line is we’re not going to give any more money to Harvard,” President Trump said.

Columbia win has paved the way for Trump team to elecit hundreds of millions from other top schools, including Cornell, Brown, Duke and Northwestern