What did Donald Trump do today?
He ranted twice about Harvard.
Trump was up past midnight and agitated Sunday morning, posting this at 12:51 A.M.:
Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to. Nobody told us that! We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names and countries. Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!
(The federal government doesn't "give" Harvard or thousands of other American universities anything. Instead, it contracts with them for specific work—contracts that the Trump administration is now trying to break.)
Trump repeated similar comments this afternoon on his return from his usual weekend at his golf resort:
Trump: "Part of the problem w/ Harvard is there are about 31% of foreigners coming to Harvard...but they refuse to tell us who the people are...it shouldn't be 31%. It's too much. Bc we have Americans who want to go there...we want a list of those students...I assume with Harvard many will be bad"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
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In other words, Trump appears to be saying—and may actually believe—that Harvard is admitting international students without visas, or (somehow) getting them visas without informing the government that grants them.
This is, to put it mildly, nonsense. The "list" of Harvard's international student population is the one that the United States government makes itself. There are no F-1 visas to study at Harvard University in the United States that the government of the United States doesn't know about, because the government of the United States issues those visas.
For context, Trump tried earlier this week to decertify Harvard
University's ability to sponsor student visas, something that was so
clearly an attempt by the Trump administration to force Harvard to
promote its political views that it was immediately stayed by a court. Trump's order would have caused massive chaos for Harvard and its 7,000 international students, which seems to have been the point.
American universities are—for the moment—the envy of the world, and admitting international students is a massive economic boon for the United States. It's also an important form of "soft power:" foreign students who benefit from an American education and see American culture up close during their formative years help strengthen their home countries' business, political, or cultural ties to the United States. Foreign enrollment in American colleges and universities also gives the United States the opportunity to benefit from and recruit the best researchers, scholars, doctors, and engineers the world has to offer.
Trump is not entirely without relevant life experience here. He operated a fake "university" himself, at least until lawsuits and regulators shut it down. He's also been caught hiring actually undocumented workers at his construction sites and resort properties throughout his career.
Why does this matter?
- There is no secret shadowy organization that is hiding "bad" students in plain sight in Harvard classrooms, and it's bad if the President of the United States is somehow convinced there is.
- Foreign students paying money to legally attend American colleges on valid visas is not a problem for anyone and it's stupid to try to fearmonger about it.
- Emotional dysregulation and confusion in the evenings or late at night is called "sundowning" and it's not a sign of good cognitive health.