One of President Donald Trump‘s most loyal supporters is not sold on his decision to ban international students at Harvard.
Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary—who has become a frequent backer of Trump on network news in recent months—said that Harvard University and Trump need to strike a deal to keep the world’s top minds flowing into the United States and remain after graduation.
“Let me assure you of something about these international students,” O’Leary told Varney & Co. on Fox Business Friday. “I teach them. These are the smartest students in the world. Harvard is the oldest educational institution. These students are extraordinary individuals, and they don’t hate America.”
O’Leary, who teaches at Harvard Business School, stopped short of criticizing Trump directly. Still, he made clear where he stands.
“They want to come here and stay in America, and they want to figure out a way that they can start a business in America,” he said of foreign students at Harvard. “We want them here. I want to invest in them. I’ve already invested in two of them. These are the brightest and the best from around the world, and they’re coming for the American dream.”
Trump has been at odds with Harvard for months, but their feud escalated on April 14 when Harvard rejected the administration’s demands for a complete overhaul of its governance, hiring practices, admissions, teaching, and research programs. These demands were in response to the administration’s objections to how Harvard allegedly failed to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations on its campus last year.
The White House responded by freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding to the university. It also cut off another key funding source this week, as international students make up over a quarter of the university’s student body. Those foreign students shoulder higher tuition costs than their American counterparts.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the international student ban in a Thursday letter addressed to Harvard President Alan Garber.
“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” she wrote.
The order puts current Harvard international students in limbo. They must transfer universities if they wish to retain a student visa to study in the U.S. That may also include those who were set to graduate in a matter of weeks or months.
O’Leary, who has met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to advise him on Canada, where he hails from, wants Garber and the president to reach a deal.
“Now Harvard has to talk to the president, president to president,” he said. “This has to get worked out. When I go back there to teach in the fall, I want the best and brightest because I, along with millions of other investors, want them to stay in America.”
If some compromise must be made, O’Leary suggested mandating that Harvard’s international students stay in the U.S. after graduation. While O’Leary has met with Trump and openly backed some of his more outlandish proposals, like annexing Canada, there is no evidence to suggest the president considers the businessman a trusted adviser.
“Why don’t we vet them first, check their backgrounds, clear them, and tell them you graduate Harvard, you’re an engineer or whatever, you stay here and you start a business here, and you’ll get funded here, and you’ll create jobs here, because that’s why you came here in the first place,” he said.
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