Harvard University is fighting to regain the more than $2 billion that President Donald Trump stripped from the college over what he regards as pervasive antisemitism on campus.

However, the president insists that he will get the last laugh even if an Obama-appointed judge rules against him. 

Trump calls judge "a total disaster"

According to Politico, Trump promised in a Monday Truth Social post to appeal any unfavorable ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs.

"She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling," Trump said of the judge, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014.

"She has systematically taken over the various Harvard cases, and is an automatic 'loss' for the People of our Country!" Trump declared.

In addition to criticizing Burroughs, the president also took aim at Harvard, slamming the Ivy League institution as being "anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America."

Judge blocked Trump's attempt to bar foreign students from attending Harvard

Politico noted how this is not the first time that Trump has been at odds with Burroughs, as she ruled against his administration last month in a separate lawsuit involving Harvard.

That case concerns Trump's decision to bar international students from receiving visas to attend the university, something Harvard called an "illegal retaliatory" action.

Admission to the United States to study at an “elite” American university is a privilege, not a right. This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the President’s proclamation suspending the entry of new foreign students at Harvard University based on national security…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) June 5, 2025

Burroughs responded by issuing a temporary restraining order which directed the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to disregard Trump's instruction.

Task force found that Harvard broke law by refusing to protect Jewish students

Meanwhile, NPR reported in June how a task force assembled by the Department of Education found that Harvard had violated federal law in its refusal to protect Jewish students from mobs of angry demonstrators.

The task force's report pointed out that Harvard "was wracked by demonstrations that flagrantly violated the University’s rules of conduct."

"The demonstrations included calls for genocide and murder, and denied Jewish and Israeli students access to campus spaces," it continued.

"Harvard has been in some cases deliberately indifferent, and in others has been a willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff," the report went on to allege.