President Donald Trump issued an order on Wednesday barring international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard University citing “national security” concerns.
The move is an escalation in the president’s ongoing feud with Harvard and other universities.
In addition to barring incoming students, Trump also has given Secretary of State Marco Rubio the go-ahead to start revoking the visas of foreign students who are studying at the college.
Trump claims that Harvard refused to give his administration information about “known illegal activity” on its campus allegedly committed by international students.
The Trump administration previously signaled that it would try to prevent Harvard from enrolling international students, but a federal judge issued an injunction to stop the White House from interfering in the college’s enrollment practices.
It appears that the president is trying to interfere with Harvard’s foreign student enrolment by other means.
“Admission to the United States to study at an ‘elite’ American university is a privilege, not a right,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X. “This Department of Justice will vigorously defend the President’s proclamation suspending the entry of new foreign students at Harvard University based on national security.”
Harvard issued a response to the Trump administration’s order.
“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” university spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement. “Harvard will continue to protect its international students.”
The Trump White House demanded that Harvard overhaul its admission and disciplinary policies in April or face losing its funding. He has also accused the college of antisemitism over its handling of pro-Palestinian student protests.
Harvard — unlike other universities, like Columbia — refused to bend to the president’s pressure. In response, the White House blocked more than $2 billion in federal funding from the university.
Since then, Trump has been on a mission to force Harvard to comply with his orders. In early May, he threatened to cancel Harvard’s tax exempt status, and later considered giving $3 billion in the university’s grants to trade schools.
Lawrence Summers, a President Emeritus at Harvard and former Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton, called Trump’s move “punitive extortion.”
“President @realDonaldTrump’s latest salvo against @Harvard clearly represents punitive extortion rather than any seriously thought through policy to promote national security. I hope and trust that the judiciary will again restrain the President in the name of lawful government and the Constitution,” Summers wrote on X.
While he said that “Harvard should make a variety of changes” to its policies, he insisted that “extortion is the wrong way to bring them about and will ultimately prove to be counterproductive in terms of our national security as we alienate allies, threaten our scientific cutting edge and undermine the major contribution universities make to the national economy.”
