Donald Trump has doubled down on his plan to bring in over 600,000 Chinese college students to the United States, in a polarizing move that has divided the MAGA base.
However, the president has batted away criticism, declaring, “I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else.”
His plan will see the annual number of visas offered to Chinese students increase to the new figure over the next two years, up from the current 300,000.
The president has said that his plan will prevent “half the colleges in the United States” from going out of business, while appearing on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, and even took a swipe at the French people.
Laura Ingraham grilled the president, telling Trump that “a lot of MAGA folks are not thrilled” about his plan.
“Yeah, but you would have, as you know, historically Black colleges and universities would all be out of business,” Trump said.
Ingraham suggested that this means the United States has become “dependent on China” to keep its university system afloat, with Trump merely replying that he wants “to be able to get along with the world.”
Ingraham pressed further by arguing “they’re not the French, they’re the Chinese,” adding “they spy on us, they steal our intellectual property.”
After that, the president took a vicious swipe at France, one of the United States’ closest allies.
“You think the French are better?” he asked, before Ingraham said, “Yeah.”
“Really? I’ll tell you, I’m not so sure,” he replied. “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 also rejected the idea that his plan had split MAGA, telling Ingraham that “MAGA was my idea.”
“MAGA was nobody else’s idea,” he said. “I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”
However, his plan to increase the number of visas being offered to Chinese students to 600,000 has shattered his formerly rock-solid “America First” base.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters that “There is a significant percentage of the Chinese students who are engaged by the CCP,” as he slammed the plans, according to Florida Politics.
“Why would we be importing foreign workers when we have our own people that we need to take care of?” he added.
Former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene took to X to blast the president’s plans and suggest that Chinese students would “replace our American students’ opportunities.”
Also, the move has divided Congressional Republicans.
According to the Washington Examiner, several have renewed their calls to reverse the president’s economic deal with China, citing concerns that it poses a national security threat.
“We should proceed with caution when dealing with our top foreign adversary,” Representative Mark Harris told the Examiner. “Over the past year, students who hate America have been exposed on our college campuses — proving time and time again that studying in America is a privilege, not a right.”
Michal Sobolik from the Hudson Institute has also accused the Chinese Communist Party of using “Chinese students to steal American research,” as part of a plan to exploit “our open education system to censor Chinese nationals on U.S. soil.”
“Universities are complicit in this because they depend on international student tuition rates,” Sobolik told The College Fix. “Policymakers shouldn’t continue a status quo that favors our enemy and leaves our universities exposed to espionage.”
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