President Donald Trump surprised both allies and critics this week by announcing plans to allow 600,000 Chinese students to study at U.S. universities — a striking departure from his administration’s restrictive visa policies and ongoing tensions with Beijing.
The move comes after tightened oversight on international students. The Trump administration previously expanded visa vetting, sought to block foreign enrollment at Harvard, and issued directives aimed at barring students with links to the Chinese Communist Party from U.S. campuses. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly warned against Chinese students in sensitive academic fields, saying in May that the State Department would revoke visas tied to security concerns.
Yet Trump struck a different tone during a Monday meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. “I hear so many stories about ‘We are not going to allow their students,’ but we are going to allow their students to come in. We are going to allow it. It’s very important — 600,000 students,” Trump told reporters. The following day, he reiterated at a Cabinet meeting, “I told this to President Xi that we’re honored to have their students here. Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”
The announcement drew immediate backlash from Trump’s conservative base, many of whom framed it as a betrayal of his “America First” stance. Former adviser Steve Bannon said Tuesday that “there should be no foreign students here for the moment,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) argued, “If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being propped up by the CCP.”
Right-wing media figures also expressed alarm. Laura Ingraham told viewers on Fox News: “I just don’t understand it for the life of me. Those are 600,000 spots that American kids won’t get.”
Despite the criticism, Trump’s remarks underscore the economic importance of international students. According to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, foreign students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported nearly 378,200 jobs during the 2023–2024 academic year. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the proposal, saying that “15% of American universities and colleges would go out of business without those foreign students.”
Chinese enrollment in U.S. higher education has declined in recent years, dropping from 372,532 students in 2019–2020 to 277,398 last year. Experts warn that ongoing visa restrictions and strained U.S.-China relations could drive the number even lower.
Trump’s unexpected reversal leaves universities — and his political allies — uncertain about the administration’s direction. For institutions that rely on international tuition revenue, the promise of expanded access could provide relief. But for Trump’s core supporters, the decision represents yet another rift in the uneasy balance between populist politics and the realities of global higher education.
