President Donald Trump is facing fierce pushback from his own supporters after announcing that the United States will welcome 600,000 Chinese students to study at American universities.
“I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,” Trump told reporters earlier this week at the White House. “We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. … But we’re going to get along with China.”
NOW – Trump says he’ll allow 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S. pic.twitter.com/8h0S9O1Ib6
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 25, 2025
The reversal comes just months after Trump’s administration imposed sweeping restrictions on visas for Chinese students. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would “aggressively revoke visas” for those tied to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in sensitive fields, arguing the measures would “put America first, not China.”
Trump’s pivot has sparked outrage among prominent figures in his “Make America Great Again” movement. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said admitting the students would replace our American student’s opportunities. Far-right activist Laura Loomer called them “communist spies,” while Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on whether the decision fit the president’s “America First” agenda.
Lutnick defended the move as an economic necessity, arguing that U.S. higher education would “empty from the top” without foreign students. He said allowing Chinese enrollment would boost elite universities while forcing weaker schools to close.
The combined episodes underscore another misfire in Trump’s message discipline — first misfiring on global diplomacy, then sparking internal revolt over perceived policy reversal, only to backtrack with a quick clarification from the White House directly to Fox News.
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