MAGA Not Happy With Trump's Latest Announcement on China

President Trump seemingly caught his loyal conservative base off guard and sparked backlash by saying he'd allow 600,000 Chinese students into American universities. That would be a departure for the Trump administration after it added new vetting for student visas, moved to block foreign enrollment at Harvard, and expanded the grounds for terminating international students' ability to study in the US. Trump's announcement on Monday adds to the confusion about the administration's restrictive visa policies and its approach to China as the superpowers tussle over trade and intensifying tech competition, per the AP.

It also marks another divide with figures in Trump's MAGA base, who tout an "America First" agenda and had contested the US inserting itself in the recent Israel-Iran war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has singled out China, the second highest source of international students in the US, saying in May that the State Department would revoke visas for students tied to the Chinese Communist Party and boost vetting of new applicants. Some of Trump's most ardent supporters—from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to former adviser Steve Bannon and far-right activist Laura Loomer—have also rejected the idea of welcoming more Chinese students.

Bannon, one of Trump's former advisers, criticized the announcement on Tuesday, saying "there should be no foreign students here for the moment." Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, however, said Monday on Fox News that Trump was taking a "rational economic view" and asserted that 15% of American universities and colleges would go out of business without those foreign students. China's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has called out the US for what it says is "discriminatory, politically driven, and selective law enforcement" against Chinese students arriving in the US. It's not immediately clear why the figure Trump cited was so high—more than twice the 277,398 Chinese students enrolled in the 2023-2024 school year. The total also has been falling in the past few years. More here.