Washington DC [US], May 31 (HBTV): US President Donald Trump has reiterated his stance on restricting Harvard University’s ability to enrol foreign students, stating that he does not want ‘students who are causing trouble’ in the country.

Trump's comments come amid an ongoing legal and political confrontation between his administration and the Ivy League institution over both funding and foreign student admissions.

‘We want students, I want foreign students here... Our country has given Harvard USD 5 billion plus over a short period of time. Nobody knew that; we found that out. I wouldn't say that was a DOGE thing,’ Trump said.

He added: ‘We ended up in litigation for other reasons because they're very anti-Semitic. And in finding out and in going through the books, we found out that the country gave them USD 5 billion plus, much more than that, actually, and we're having it out with them, and let's see what happens. It's a very sad case. It's a case we win. We can't lose that case because we have the right to make grants. We're not going to make any grants like that, but I don't think Harvard has been acting very nicely.’

The dispute escalated after the Trump administration attempted to block Harvard from enrolling international students, prompting the university to challenge the move in federal court. A judge later issued a temporary halt on the administration’s ban.

Earlier, Trump had advocated capping the number of foreign students at Harvard at 15 percent, claiming that the current figure — which he said stands at nearly 31 percent — is too high and includes individuals from ‘very radicalised’ parts of the world.

‘Why would 31 percent? Why would a number be so big? I think they (Harvard University) should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent. We have people that want to go to Harvard and other schools but they can't get in because we have foreign students there,’ Trump said.

In a pointed critique, he remarked: ‘I want to make sure that foreign students are people that can love our country. We don't want to see shopping centres explode. We don't want to see the kind of riots that you had, and I'll tell you what, many of those students didn't go anywhere, many of those students were troublemakers caused by the radical left.’

Harvard University, in its legal filing, argued that the move to revoke its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was ‘clear retaliation’ for the institution’s refusal to accept the government's ideologically driven policy demands.

(ANI)