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President Donald Trump proposed slashing the proportion of international students at Harvard to 15 percent, continuing a string of recent comments criticizing the University and disparaging its student body.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said Harvard’s international student population — which accounts for approximately 30 percent of Harvard’s total student body — should be capped at “maybe around 15 percent.”

“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools; they can’t get in because we have foreign students there,” Trump said.

His remarks were a response to a reporter who asked when the State Department would resume scheduling interviews for student visa applicants, which were halted on Tuesday. The pause came less than a week after the Department of Homeland Security attempted to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students — a decision that was temporarily halted by a federal judge last week.

Trump did not answer the reporter’s question.

The president — who repeatedly attempted to ban entry from majority-Muslim countries during his first term — also seemed to suggest that Harvard should only take international students from certain countries, saying he saw a “nice young man” from the United Kingdom who wanted to attend Harvard.

“You’re going to see some very radical people. They’re taking people from areas of the world that are very radicalized, and we don’t want them making trouble in our country,” Trump said, adding that the U.K. student “looked good to me, but I want to check his past.”

Harvard has not indicated it is willing to accept government efforts to shape its student body, denouncing the DHS order and earlier demands that it screen international applicants for their beliefs as overreach and interference with its autonomy.

Trump’s comments came as part of a wide-ranging diatribe against Harvard, in which he accused the University of showing “great disrespect” to the U.S. and suggested that many international students are “troublemakers caused by the radical left lunatics.”

“I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country,” Trump said. “We don’t want to see shopping centers exploding. We don’t want to see the kind of riots that you had.”

The president again falsely claimed that Harvard had not provided him with a list of international students. In fact, students’ names and countries of origin are maintained in a State Department database, and Harvard displays the count of students it takes from each country on its public website.

The dispute between Harvard and the DHS instead hinges on the department’s request for more extensive student records, including on topics like students’ disciplinary histories, involvement in violence or threats, and participation in protests.

Information submitted by Harvard to the DHS, as described in emails disclosed in the University’s lawsuit, suggests that criminal activity and disciplinary violations among international students have occurred at vanishingly low rates. No recent student protests on Harvard’s campus have turned violent.

Trump echoed a threat — which he first floated in a Monday post on Truth Social — to redistribute billions of dollars from Harvard to trade schools.

“I’d rather see that money go to trade schools,” Trump said. “And by the way, they’re totally antisemitic at Harvard.”

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.

Trump also reiterated his allies’ allegations that academic rigor at Harvard has been passed over in favor of protests and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. In particular, he took aim at an introductory math course introduced last fall that has become a punching bag for Republican critics, including Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who derided the course as “remedial.”

“Harvard announced two weeks ago that they are going to teach remedial mathematics — remedial, meaning they’re low-grade mathematics, like 2+2 is four,” he said. “How did these people get into Harvard if they can’t do basic mathematics?”

In fact, the course, titled Math MA5, is a calculus and pre-calculus course that provides more support for students without strong algebra foundations and is similar to introductory math courses at peer universities. Students in the course are required to complete the same work as students in Harvard’s introductory calculus class.

During his Wednesday tirade, Trump compared Harvard’s confrontational posture to that of Columbia University, which he said has been “very, very bad” but is now cooperating with the federal government.

“Harvard wants to fight,” Trump said. “They want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their ass kicked.”

“Every time they fight, they lose another $250 million,” he said.

Trump’s Wednesday remarks come as the White House intensifies its pressure campaign against the University over allegations of antisemitism and race-based discrimination on its campus. Since April, the Trump administration has cut off nearly $3 billion in funding — and pledged on Monday to sever all financial ties with the University.

In response, Harvard has filed two lawsuits — one challenging the funding cuts and another attempting to block the DHS’ directive. A federal judge blocked the DHS from enforcing their order last Friday — and is set to hear arguments from Harvard’s lawyers on Thursday to determine whether to extend the stay.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.