(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will welcome 600,000 Chinese students to American universities has ignited a fierce revolt within his own political base, marking one of the most significant policy reversals of his administration’s early months.
The dramatic shift emerged during an Oval Office meeting Monday with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. At this meeting, Trump declared: “We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to get along with China.”
The proposed enrollment would more than double the current Chinese student population of approximately 277,000 and exceed pre-pandemic levels that peaked at 372,000 in 2019-20, according to data from Statista.
The announcement directly contradicts Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s May declaration that the administration would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” which Rubio had framed as putting “America First, Not China.”
When pressed during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump doubled down on his position, stating: “I think it’s very insulting to say students can’t come here because they’ll go out and start building schools and they’ll be able to survive it. But I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here.”
The reversal has prompted unprecedented criticism from Trump’s most loyal supporters. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media, writing: “We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP,” questioning why Chinese students should “replace opportunities for American students.”
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
Laura Loomer, a prominent Trump supporter, was more direct, branding Chinese students as “CCP spies” and declaring: “Nobody, I repeat, nobody wants 600,000 more Chinese students, aka communist spies, in the United States.” Michael Flynn Jr. expressed his disappointment succinctly: “Not what I voted for.”
Paging @StephenM
Nobody, I repeat nobody, wants 600,000 more Chinese “students” aka Communist spies in the United States.
China murdered 1.2 million Americans.
Now they get to replace us?
This cannot happen.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 25, 2025
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended the policy during a contentious Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham. When challenged on how welcoming Chinese students aligns with “America First” principles, Lutnick argued: “Well, the president’s point of view is that what would happen if you didn’t have those 600,000 students is that you’d empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15% of universities and colleges would go out of business in America.”
Trump himself warned that American higher education would suffer without international students, telling reporters that the college system would “go to hell very quickly” and added that “it wouldn’t be the top colleges, so it’d be colleges that struggle on the bottom.”
The announcement comes amid heated trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies. Earlier in 2025, the United States imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting China to retaliate with 125% tariffs on American exports before negotiations produced a temporary truce, as reported by various news outlets.
Chinese nationals represent one of America’s largest immigrant populations, with approximately 2.4 million Chinese immigrants currently residing in the United States, while the broader Chinese American population totals about 5.5 million people as of 2023, according to Pew Research Center data.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
