Trump administration halts Harvard's ability to enroll international students
nytimes.com862 points by S0y 2 days ago
862 points by S0y 2 days ago
Don’t miss this bit. Currently enrolled students are going to need to find a new university.
> In a news release, the Department of Homeland Security sent a stark message to Harvard’s international students: “This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.”
Which isn’t at all how PhD programs work. This is a supreme dick move to students are going to be forced to leave with an AbD for no other reason than Trumps ego.
This is going to burn the children of the most powerful families across the world. Monarchies, dictators, owners of international conglomerates, etc all send their kids to Harvard. Destroying their children’s education out of a fit of malice is going to haunt him, and America on top of all the other stuff America is doing to the world.
America first is rapidly becoming America alone.
Here’s a case in point - future queen of Belgium kicked out of college by the president of the United States:
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5316202-future-queen-...
children of the most powerful families across the world
I doubt that most of those people are reliant on student visas.
The students absolutely are. Up until now the law applies to everyone. Now, their applications were probably rapidly approved unlike many international students. But there’s no carve out for being powerful (yet).
You cannot jump over immigration requirements "just because you're powerful", and the vast majority of them are not US citizens.
They could easily get an E2 entrepreneur visa, and the necessary cash is as little as $300k, most of which can be withdrawn later, so it's effectively a free citizenship as long as you have cash.
E2 visa is not available to everyone. Notably Indian and Chinese citizens are not eligible. And that is a large chunk of international students.
You could probably get round immigration requirements by "gifting" a jet or something
Nope, that's a fantasy.
Edit: Downvote all you want. It is a fantasy.
"That's a fantasy" is just substance-free scoffing, be specific. Ex:
1. "Trump isn't that corrupt."
2. "They'll try, but federal law will successfully interrupt the bribe at some stage."
3. "That hyper-exact event is improbable... but perhaps a slightly different favor or a different way of Trump extracting personal gain."
P.S.: For more context, two days ago Trump's Secretary of Commerce was promoting website to go live this week for selling (personally invented, illegal) "Gold Card" visas. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/business/us-gold-card-investo...
> You cannot jump over immigration requirements
You probably will be able to soon though, and it 'only' costs $5m: "A ‘Trump Card Visa’ Is Already Showing Up in Immigration Forms" [0]
I couldn't blame you for not having seen this though. It was quickly flagged and never whitelisted; like so, so many other important stories here this past few months. Check my favorites for more falsely flagged stories.
He's 78 and at the end of his political career in few years, he could care less.
He couldn’t care less.
Or maybe he could care less, but doesn't even bother to care less because caring less would exert effort and he doesn't care enough to exert any effort.
Own the grammar mistake, my dude :)
He could care less is the common phrase by now, even if it doesn't make literal sense.
"Could care less" used as a snarky response makes sense, as in, "I could care less, but I don't want to put in the effort." Using that phrase without a sarcastic intonation is still incorrect.
Could care less meaning couldn't care less. It's the same thing as how literally has come to be used with the meaning of figuratively. If you look up "could care less" in the OED you'll find it lists it under American English with the meaning "could not care less."
This is a tour of vengeance, creating a place in history, establishing a family dynasty of inherited power, and a smatter of narcissistic delusion.
[flagged]
I love how when Trump does it, he is under the influence of foreign despots, but when Harvard does it they’re principled and advancing US interests. Pick a lane folks.
Monarchies, dictators, owners of international conglomerates, etc all send their kids to Harvard
When you frame it like this... it doesn't sound like such a loss. But yeah, it's not the only way to frame it.
The percentage of Harvard international students who fall into this category is statistically insignificant. It’s not even worth framing.
It's not about the percentage of Harvard international students who fall into this category, it's about the percentage of students in this category who go to Harvard.
Also fairly low. There's plenty of high-prestige institutions in the world.
As someone from europe I'd say Harvard and MIT are the #1 prestige institutions, and a lot of people will not settle for less.
A lot? Those institutions only accept a relatively small total number of foreign students. Everyone else has to "settle for less" whether they want to or not.
If Dad gifts a new building on campus you odds at getting accepted go up tenfold.