Watch Rajdeep Sardesai weigh in on Harvard vs Trump.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There are lots of activities across lots of institutes that go on here in Harvard.
00:05When you hear of students having their visas being revoked in other parts of the, in other
00:13universities, it has an effect. It has a chilling effect on many students who are obviously worried.
00:19The Trump administration now wants a record of all the foreign students who are here at Harvard
00:24and has even threatened that in the future they could cancel visas for foreign student admissions.
00:30So I, I mean, while there is concern, there is worry.
00:34And I would say that there is also the hope that when it comes to university admissions,
00:40the Trump administration will not act in a manner that is prejudicial to the interests of students from countries like India.
00:49But, but with Donald Trump, you don't know.
00:51Yes, the Trump administration, Geeta, can possibly attempt to withdraw some of the federal grants
00:58that it gives Harvard. And it's already said it's doing so more than $2.7 million worth of grants.
01:05Harvard is ready. The university is ready through a legal help to take the Trump administration,
01:13if necessary, to court.
01:14But clearly the manner in which the Trump administration has acted against students who
01:20are involved in those protests during the Gaza war would suggest that there will now be some
01:24kind of a restraint on students. I think that is one of the unfortunate fallouts of what Trump has done.
01:30I was at MIT only yesterday. And there also the concerns are, will some of the research grants
01:37be withdrawn. And that is, I think, the larger worry that many of these universities have.
01:44That to what extent is the Trump administration willing to go to diminish what traditionally has been seen
01:51as the soft power of the United States, bringing in students from different parts of the world,
01:55including India.
01:56The other big issue at the moment, a U.S. court threatening contempt against the Trump administration
02:02for not bringing back an El Salvador citizen, an El Salvador deputy back to the United States.
02:10So I think Mr. Trump has opened a number of flanks, and this is only the latest one.