During a portion of an interview aired on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” President Donald Trump defended having students from foreign countries, including China, in American universities by saying that “it’s good to have outside countries.” And “I want to get along with countries if possible.” He also argued that slashing the number of foreign students will bankrupt colleges and universities, foreign students pay a lot of money, and other countries like France treat the U.S. as badly as China does.
Host Laura Ingraham asked, [relevant exchange begins around 14:00] “A lot of MAGA folks are not thrilled about this idea of hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States. We have about 350,000 Chinese. At one point during COVID, you were going to push to get them out. But that was pulled back. You’ve said as many as 600,000 Chinese students could come to the United States. Why, sir, is that a pro-MAGA position when so many American kids want to go to school and there are places not for them, and these universities are getting rich off Chinese money?”
Trump answered, “Sure. Never said about China, but we do have a lot of people coming in from China. We always have, China and other countries. We also have a massive system of colleges and universities. And if we were to cut that in half, which, perhaps, makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business.”
Ingraham followed up, “So, we’re dependent on China to keep our university system going?”
Trump responded, “No, not China, but I think it’s good to have — I actually think it’s good to have outside countries. Look, I want to be able to get along with the world.”
Ingraham cut in to counter, “They’re not the French. They’re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property.”
Trump then said, “What, do you think the French are better? … I’m not so sure. We’ve had a lot of problems with the French, where we get taxed very unfairly on our technology, where they put 25% taxes on American products. Look, assuming everyone treats us badly, because that’s the way I am, but we take in trillions of dollars from students. The students pay more than double when they come in from most foreign countries. I want to see our school system thrive. But at the same time, I want — I know you and I disagree. We’re never going to agree on it, but that’s okay — and it’s not that I want them. But I view it as a business. We have millions and millions of people, also, I want to get along with countries if possible. People are shocked, remember, Hillary Clinton said, we’ll be in a war. I stopped eight wars in the last nine months. I don’t want to be in wars. If I am in a war, we’re going to win the thing fast, and it’ll be violent. But I don’t want to be in wars. But, one thing, you don’t want to cut half of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system, I don’t want to do that. And don’t forget, MAGA was my idea, MAGA was nobody else’s idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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