Trump Demands 15% Cap On Foreign Students To Make ‘Harvard Great Again’

United States President Donald Trump asserted on Wednesday that Harvard should cap the amount of international students to around 15 percent to make more space for American applicants. The comments are followed by his administration cutting the university’s federal funding while also curtailing its ability to intake foreign students. He had also directed the institutes to share information about foreign students with the government. 

Trump gave a statement to the media stating that, “I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 per cent, not 31 per cent. We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, but they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”

The Trump administration has imposed these restrictions on Harvard as its leaders did not meet the administrations’ directives to crack down on the Pro Palestine protest, which they have labelled as antisemitic and also exert control over the university’s academia. 

“Harvard has to show us their lists. They have foreign students, almost 31 percent of their students. We want to know where those students come from. Are they troublemakers? What countries do they come from?,” he added further. 

Trump also claimed that “Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect” and claimed that he wants “Harvard to be great again.”

The university had earlier sought a stay on Trump’s directives which was granted on Friday. While releasing a statement, the University said that the order was part of a “series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government’s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body”.

Trump has also floated the idea of redirecting federal funds from Harvard to trade schools. "They’re taking $5 billion and I’d rather see that money go to trade schools. And by the way, they are totally anti-semitic at Harvard, as you know, and some other colleges too, in all fairness to them, and it’s been exposed, very exposed,” he said.