President Donald Trump blasted the Obama-appointed U.S. District Court judge overseeing Harvard’s legal challenge to the administration’s freezing of $2.2 billion in federal grants to the university.
Harvard is challenging the Trump administration’s freeze, which stems from the elite university’s refusal to comply with demands, including implementing merit-based hiring practices and reforming screening and admissions practices for international students to prevent admissions of students “hostile to the American values,” including students who support “terrorism or anti-Semitism.”
After oral arguments on Monday, Trump ripped U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts Allison Burroughs, who is overseeing the case.
“The Harvard case was just tried in Massachusetts before an Obama-appointed Judge. She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling,” Trump wrote in a post on X.
“She has systematically taken over the various Harvard cases, and is an automatic ‘loss’ for the People of our Country! Harvard has $52 Billion Dollars sitting in the Bank, and yet they are anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America,” Trump added.
He then contended that much of Harvard’s funding comes to the detriment of other colleges and universities across the country.
“Much of this money comes from the U.S.A., all to the detriment of other Schools, Colleges, and Institutions, and we are not going to allow this unfair situation to happen any longer,” Trump wrote.
He predicted that Burroughs would side with Harvard in the challenge and vowed that the federal government would appeal the decision.
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“How did this Trump-hating Judge get these cases? When she rules against us, we will IMMEDIATELY appeal, and WIN. Also, the Government will stop the practice of giving many Billions of Dollars to Harvard, much of which had been given without explanation,” he wrote.
“It is a longtime commitment to Fairness in Funding Education, and the Trump Administration will not stop until there is VICTORY. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he concluded.
NBC News noted that Burroughs seemed to “lean in favor of Harvard University” in court Monday, and CNN reported that she challenged Department of Justice lawyer Michael Velchik over the cuts to Harvard.
“You’re not taking away grants from labs that could have been antisemitic, but just cut off funding in a way one could argue hurts Americans and Jews,” Burroughs said at one point, per CNN.
At another point in the oral arguments, Velchik said antisemitism has “besieged” Harvard, adding, “It’s sick. Federal taxpayer dollars should not support this.”
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