Trump’s Battle on Academia: How is America running the world’s most bright minds

Extensive steps to screen immigrants of Trump administration and Visa Applicants have triggered resentment among right groups, universities and legal experts on social media for “antiseemic” activity. effective immediately, US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS) will now consider Israel’s online speech important – or as support for groups like Hamas or Hizbullah – depending on the refusal of visas, green cards and other immigration benefits.
DHS spokesman Trisia McLaglin said, “There is no place in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers.”
The initiative comes amidst a wide trump-age campaign to silence the pro-Palestinian dissatisfaction, punish the elite universities and remake higher education through government pressure, cutting and exile.
why it matters
The immigration at stake is much more than veting. Trump’s rift is a rebellion of what kind of speech and what kind of people in America. It marks a new era in the US for about 1 million international students, especially from Muslim-majority countries or in campus activism.
The policy has already led:

“By surveying visas and green card holders and targeting them on the basis of nothing more than their protected expression, the administration traded the US commitment to free and open discourse,” said “Fire (Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression).
Big photo: Academia In crosshair
President Donald Trump’s functions are not just about immigration. They reflect a deep ambition: existing academic orders, especially to destroy Elite Universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, which looks correctly as the correct rapidly ideological opponent.
“This is an economic revolution and we will win,” Trump has said, attract similarities to the revolutionary strategies of the past.
This “campus counter-revolution”, described by The Economist, attempts to punish universities for alleged liberal bias and reshuffle cultural institutions that mold American elite. Over $ 1 billion earlier in federal grants, the administration has been canceled or frozen for schools such as Princeton and Cornell after public criticisms.
The methods of the campaign include:

It is not just cultural backlash – it is systemic. And it is working. Columbia university He has passed through three presidents in a year. Harvard is quietly eliminating his Middle East Study Leadership. Message to universities: Facing line decline or financial extinction.
Big picture
The crack is part of a comprehensive campaign under President Donald Trump, to reopen the US immigration and foreign policy through a national security lens. From the beginning of March, the administration has:

In high-profile cases:
Mahmud Khalil, a permanent resident and graduate of Columbia University, was detained in Louisiana before exile for his role in protests related to Gaza.
Rumca Ojturk, a Turkish PhD student at the University of Tufts, canceled her visa after a co-written by a-pro-priestiny op-ed.
Dartmouth student Geotian Liu won a temporary legal victory, when a federal court restored its F -1 position after a process was canceled without any procedure.
The Nexus Project said, “This administration is targeting immigrants in the name of fighting antisementism, it is considered as an imported problem.”
Defund and Discipline: The Trump Playbook
According to an economist report, the president of each university in the US submerged the “The letter”. The first shot came on 13 March, when the government returned $ 400 million in grant from Columbia University and released a list of demands: some students expel protesters, overhal entry, and hand over to the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. Columbia folded quickly. The interim President resigned within a week. Chris Roofo, a prominent conservative activist, has “almost incredible, how weak, fake, and pathetic.”
More universities are being squeezed. On March 19, the President of Princeton warned that the administration’s action was “the biggest threat to American universities since the red intimidation of the 1950s.” This pressure can understand: Princeton soon had $ 210 million in suspended research grants. Harvard received a letter, threatening $ 9 billion in funding, until he tied his DEI programs and reorganization departments with “antiseemic oppression”. This week, $ 1 billion for Cornell, and Northwestern for $ 790 million were frozen.
Indian students resumed American dreams
According to the US Consulate in India Mumbai, in 2024 alone, more than 531,000 sends more than 531,000 students to more students than any other country. But Trump’s immigration policies are rapidly turning that dream into a bad dream.
Arbitrary visas revive and exile order cases are increasing:

According to the Global Education Platform Studyportals, interest in American graduate programs has fallen by 42% in 2025. Students are instead of Canada, UK and Australia are seen to be more stable and welcome.
And time cannot be worse. American university Rely on international students not only for tuition, but also as an important task force in research and STEM areas. About 70% of Stem PhD graduates live in the US, contribute to innovation and economic development.
What are they saying
The universities are fighting back. An alliance led by the American Association of University Professors (AAP), and supported by 80+ institutions, including Rutgers and Georgetown, filed an amicus brief warning that Trump’s policies threatened a very foundation of American academia.
Mirium Feldbalum, president of the President’s coalition, said, “Government’s actions have disrupted life, threatened institutional security, and have compromised on educational freedom.”
But they face a contradiction: resisting the pressure of the administration can mean renunciation of federal money. Harvard can survive, with his endowment, with his endowment rivaling the sovereign wealth fund of Oman. Will not do others.
The economist said, “Even if Ivy cannot stand for bullying, there is not much hope for elite public universities.”
The deep danger is that the compact between academics and the government – the deal that enables internet, mRNA vaccines and artificial intelligence – it could be exposed. The deal has long been rested on an understanding that independent investigation, not political loyalty, fuels innovation.
“The Free University,” warned Dwight Eisenhwar in 1961, “has been a fountain of free ideas and scientific discovery.” Today, that foundation is breaking.
zoom out
The US struggle to balance the open academic exchange with national security is not new – but it is reaching a braking point.
Since 9/11, international students have been observed rapidly through a lens of suspicion. In Trump’s first term, the “Muslim restriction” tries to cancel the mass visa cancellation, and the post-graduation work permit for Chinese STEM students. Even under President Biden, the celebrations of the celebrations targeting Chinese students continued until the Civil Liberty groups pushed back.
The current makes the crack particularly controversial, its intensity and its ambiguity.
The Trump administration justifies its actions under the guise of fighting antisementism. But critics argue that it applies a selective lens – tolerating or promoting other forms of radical expression criticizing Israel’s policy.
The economist said, “You can complain about cancellation of culture and then please the exile of a student to write op-ads.” “It’s not about speech – it’s about control.”
What will happen next
Bachalash is increasing. The legal battle is spreading in federal courts. ACLU recently won a temporary prohibition, in which the F -1 visa of Dartmouth student Ziaotian Liu was restored. More cases are expected with possible class functions on the horizon.
Still the administration is doubling. State Secretary Marco Rubio said that visa cancellation would continue on “daily basis”. DHS Secretary Christie Nom has announced that the first amendment will not be applicable to foreign nationals, who “support terrorist violence”.
Result? A slow but average erosion of American academic height. Universities are losing talent. The campus is silenting themselves. The world’s most talented minds are getting away.
(With input from agencies)