Much to the dismay and anguished cries of Democrats and media pundits, President Donald Trump has hit his partisan ideological opponents at Harvard University with a federal funding freeze and a threat to revoke the school's tax-exempt status.

Yet, at least one prominent Harvard alum, billionaire investor and CEO Bill Ackman, has expressed his support for Trump's actions against the university and insisted that it was time for his alma mater's corporate leadership to undergo serious changes, Fox News reported.

Trump has sought to compel substantial reforms from Harvard of its leadership and policies, but the university has remained defiant and fought back against the president's efforts with a lawsuit that seeks to block and reverse the president's executive actions.

Harvard deserves tough treatment from Trump

Last week, in a Truth Social post, President Trump announced, "We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!"

On Monday, during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Harvard alum Ackman signaled his support for that move and explained of his alma mater, "Harvard became, over time, a political advocacy organization for one party. When a university goes from being a university to a, you know, affecting, you know, becoming a political advocacy organization, it’s not -- it doesn’t deserve nonprofit status."

"Harvard should be a place where students go to learn, and the best research gets done," he continued. "It shouldn’t be a place that is allowing pro-terrorist organizations on campus, that only allows certain kinds of thinking and speech on campus. That’s -- that’s a political advocacy organization. It’s not a university."

Ackman expressed his doubts that Harvard would actually be stripped of its tax-exempt status and was quick to note that he didn't hold the university's president, Alan Garber, responsible for the school's problems, but instead pointed the finger of blame at the chair of Harvard's corporate board, Penny Pritzker.

"If this were any other kind of corporation, the notion that she’s still chairman of Harvard, leading the charge here and in terms of how Harvard managed everything from COVID ... to the endowment management, to waste, to free speech, to who they hired as president of the university," added of Pritzker. "It’s time for a change in leadership in the board at Harvard."

Initial funding freeze met with defiance and lawsuit

On April 15, the Associated Press reported, President Trump's administration froze approximately $2.2 billion in federal grant funding and contracts for Harvard University after the school defiantly rejected overtures from the White House to do more to combat antisemitism on campus, end its racist "diversity, equity, and inclusion" policies, and make other necessary reforms to its leadership and admissions/hiring practices.

Rather than acquiesce or even attempt to negotiate the terms with the dealmaker-in-chief, Harvard opted to file a federal lawsuit to unfreeze the withheld funding, but if the university thought its resistance would force the administration to back down, it was sorely mistaken.

CNN reported that the Trump administration has further escalated the confrontation and now aims to cut off virtually all federal funding to Harvard, with an exception for Pell Grants and student loan funding, unless and until the university ends its defiance and embraces the reforms that would better align the school with certain federal requirements.

"Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution"

In a letter to Harvard on Monday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote, "In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor," and instead has "made a mockery of this country’s higher education system" with its unacceptable practices and policies.

"Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni," the secretary continued. "You have an approximately $53 Billion head start, much of which was made possible by the fact that you are living within the walls of, and benefiting from, the prosperity secured by the United States of America and its free-market system you teach your students to despise."

It is unclear just how much federal funding is at stake here, as an unnamed senior administration official told CNN that the additional funding freeze could impact "over $1 billion a year." However, per the AP report last month, it was estimated that upwards of $9 billion in annual funding for grants and contracts could ultimately be at risk if Harvard continues to refuse to comply.