Overview
- In a Fox News interview aired Thursday from his Beijing trip, President Trump said barring 500,000 Chinese students would hurt U.S. colleges and argued that removing Chinese buyers from farmland would drive down land prices.
- He added that strong students from China and other countries who want to stay could receive green cards, calling it insulting to tell a country its students are not welcome.
- The remarks prompted sharp criticism from MAGA figures such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida candidate James Fishback, while some Republicans in Congress offered measured responses that split on students and land purchases.
- The stance appears at odds with his February 2025 national security memorandum to limit Chinese investments and a July 2025 farm security plan aimed at restricting or forcing divestment of Chinese-held farmland, and the White House has not clarified how policies will align.
- Reporters noted USDA data showing Chinese primary investors held more than 245,000 U.S. farmland acres as of 2024, a context to concerns that now collide with universities’ reliance on full-paying international students and states’ own land restrictions.