Trump Says Harvard Should Cap Number of International Students

President Trump on Wednesday said Harvard should cap the number of international students it admits to create more spots for Americans, undercutting his administration’s argument that merit alone should guide admissions practices as it escalates its fight with the elite university.

Mr. Trump’s comments came in response to a question about the Department of Homeland Security’s recent move to revoke the school’s ability to enroll foreign students. The college immediately challenged that decision in court, and a federal judge has temporarily blocked the policy.

Still, the State Department has since halted interviews abroad with foreign citizens applying for student and exchange visas as the government expands its scrutiny of applicants’ social media posts, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the Trump administration would begin revoking student visas for Chinese citizens.

The policy shifts follow efforts to crack down on universities, including Harvard, over what the administration has said is a failure to address antisemitism on campus. Mr. Trump’s has also attacked policies aimed at supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in an attempt to bring academia more in line with his views that white men and those with traditional views of gender are being discriminated against.

Harvard has so far resisted considerable pressure from the government to enact changes sought by Mr. Trump to its curriculum, hiring and admissions practices. But the government could potentially limit the number of international students allowed to study in the United States on the whole, an idea Mr. Trump alluded to on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump expressed outrage that about one-fourth of Harvard’s student body is made up of international students, up from about one-fifth in 2010, according to university data. (Mr. Trump said the figure was 31 percent this year, which appeared to be incorrect.)