(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy within his own political base during a Fox News interview on Monday, defending his plan to double Chinese student visas to 600,000 while dismissing concerns from MAGA supporters about espionage and intellectual property theft.
The contentious exchange centered on Trump’s August 2025 announcement to increase Chinese student visas from 300,000 to 600,000. Ingraham challenged the president directly, stating “Folks, are not thrilled about this idea of hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States.”
When Ingraham pressed about whether Chinese students are “fans of the United States,” Trump pivoted to economic arguments. “Yeah but you would have, as you know, historically black colleges and universities would all be out of business. You would have a system of colleges and universities,” Trump responded, suggesting that a wholesale collapse of American higher education would come about without international student revenue.
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Laura Ingraham pushes back on President Donald Trump’s plans to bring potentially 600,000 Chinese students into our universities.
“It’s not that I want them. I view it as a business,” President Trump responds to Ingraham. pic.twitter.com/us450vh28Z
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) November 11, 2025
Ingraham challenged this dependency, asking “So we’re dependent on China to keep our university system going?” Trump broadened his defense beyond China, stating “No, not China, but I actually think it’s good to have outside countries. Look, I want to be able to get along with the world.”
The Fox News host then raised security concerns, noting “They’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us, they steal our intellectual property.” Trump’s response surprised observers when he questioned whether French students posed less risk, asking “You think the French are better? Really? I’ll tell you, I’m not so sure.”
Trump criticized France’s trade practices, claiming “We’ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed very unfairly on our technology. You know, they put 25% taxes on American products.” He added, “Look, assuming everyone treats us badly because that’s the way I am, but we’re taking trillions of dollars from students.”
The president emphasized the financial incentive, stating “The students pay more than double when they come in from most foreign countries. I want to see our school system thrive.” According to the Institute of International Education, international students contributed approximately $50 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-24 academic year and supported over 378,000 jobs.
The policy has previously generated significant opposition within Trump’s own base. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, argued on X/Twitter on Aug. 25, 2025, “We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP. If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being propped up by the CCP.”
We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP.
If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) August 26, 2025
Greene continued, “Why are we allowing 600,000 students from China to replace our American student’s opportunities? We should never allow that.”
Trump dismissed the internal MAGA criticism by asserting ownership of the movement, stating “Don’t forget, MAGA was my idea. MAGA was nobody else’s idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
