Mint Quick Edit | Trump?s self-goals extend to academia too

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After threatening all along to revoke the visas of Chinese students, especially those suspected of links with the ruling party in Beijing, he has decided to let 600,000 of them into the US, marking an about-turn from what he’d been saying. 

So much so that his MAGA support base seems quite exasperated. Laura Loomer, a loyalist, slammed Trump for the move, appealing on X not to “Make America China" as “MAGA doesn’t want more immigrants."

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Trump justified his decision by arguing that the US has a “different relationship" with Beijing. Regardless of how the White House explains policy inconsistencies, it’s clear that ‘might is right’ is the only rule it abides by.

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It’s lost on nobody that China’s own imperious signals have softened its stance. Foreign students are good for the US, but their origin is not relevant to the benefits they endow America with. By subjecting US academia to geopolitical manoeuvres, Trump hurts his country’s “greatness", or whatever is left of it.