After Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza, a protest movement roiled college campuses across the country. The movement was primarily focussed on the enormous death toll in Gaza, and the United States’s support for Israel, although some of the demonstrations included incidents of antisemitism. Last month, the Trump Administration threatened sixty colleges and universities with “enforcement actions” if they fail to protect Jewish students. It has also revoked the visas of international students involved in the protests, and those who spoke out against the war. Some of these students, such as Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil, are currently in ICE custody, and a number of them have been accused of being Hamas supporters, often with no evidence.

Deborah Lipstadt, a Jewish History professor at Emory, was until recently the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under former President Joe Biden. Lipstadt became famous—and was later portrayed onscreen by Rachel Weisz—for winning a judgment in a British court against the Holocaust denier David Irving, who had sued her for libel. Lately, Lipstadt offered surprising support for some of the Trump Administration’s actions, telling the Forward, “I’m not opposed to the administration rescinding the student visas of some of the people that they’re rescinding the student visas of.” She added, “To depict some of these people as martyrs and heroes is ludicrous.”

I recently spoke by phone with Lipstadt. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed whether the Trump Administration really cares about antisemitism, why she wanted to keep some of her comments off the record, and the problem with “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”