President Trump is facing outcry from some of his supporters after saying he plans to allow 600,000 students from China into the U.S.
“It’s a very important relationship. We’re going to get along good with China,” Trump told reporters Monday during a meeting with the president of South Korea.
“I hear so many stories about we’re not going to allow their students,” he continued. “We’re going to allow their students to come in. We’re going to allow it. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important.”
Trump’s comments marked a shift from earlier in the year, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he planned to “aggressively” revoke visas from Chinese students, particularly those “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
The president’s openness to welcoming hundreds of thousands of Chinese students did not sit well with some members of his base, who questioned how it aligned with Trump’s “America First” mantra.
“We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on social platform X.
“Why are we allowing 600,000 students from China to replace our American student’s opportunities?” Greene added. “We should never allow that. And we need more trade school graduates.”
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and staunch Trump ally who has influenced policy and personnel decisions in the administration, also expressed her displeasure with the move in a series of posts on social media.
“Nobody, I repeat nobody, wants 600,000 more Chinese ‘students’ aka Communist spies in the United States,” Loomer posted on X.
“China murdered 1.2 million Americans,” she added, a reference to the COVID-19 virus that originated in China. “Now they get to replace us? This cannot happen.”
Michael Flynn Jr., the son of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, posted online that Trump’s comments were “Not what I voted for…”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham raised the issue with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during her show on Monday night.
“Mr. Secretary, with all due respect, how is allowing 600,000 students from the communist country of China putting America first?” Ingraham asked, noting it’s been a long-running issue for conservatives.
Lutnick argued without the 600,000 Chinese students, U.S. students would go to better schools with openings created by the lack of foreign students and “the bottom 15 percent of universities and colleges would go out of business in America.”
Trump’s comments came as he has touted the relationship he has with Chinese President Xi Jinping during trade negotiations between the U.S. and Beijing. The two sides levied huge tariffs on goods earlier this year, but brought the rates down significantly amid ongoing talks.
Trump told reporters Monday that he hoped to visit China later this year or “shortly thereafter.”
