The headline "Terence Tao focused on fundraising after federal funding to UCLA was suspended" also makes for better marketing than "UCLA diverts tiny part of massive war chest to address temporary funding issue".

You don't understand endowments, do you?

It's not a checking account in which you can dip into any time you want when you need to deal with an anti-science, fascist administration.

It's not bollocks, the endowments are contributions that have constraints on their spending. They cannot legally redirect much of the endowment towards these researchers in the way you want. Instead, they use the endowment as an investment that produces interest which is spent on operating expenses.