Former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns is responding to the Trump administration’s decision to block Harvard University from enrolling students from foreign countries. International students make up more than a quarter of the student body at the Ivy League school.
Note: Burns also served as U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the George W. Bush administration, and U.S. Ambassador to Greece and Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State during the Bill Clinton administration.
With a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Burns wrote: “I’ve taught hundreds of international students @Harvard. They enrich the experience of American students, boost our economy and return home impressed by our open, democratic society. Who gains from this grossly unfair decision? China.”
I’ve taught hundreds of international students @Harvard. They enrich the experience of American students, boost our economy and return home impressed by our open, democratic society. Who gains from this grossly unfair decision? China. https://t.co/IETroUOwUq
— Nicholas Burns (@RNicholasBurns) May 23, 2025
Note: Burns recently spoke with Trump’s former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo at the Harvard Kennedy School, where Pompeo reportedly expressed his belief that “the U.S. appears to be pulling back from its leadership role on the world stage & warns there’s no other nation that can step in as the champion of global democracy if America walks away.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. appears to be pulling back from its leadership role on the world stage & warns there’s no other nation that can step in as the champion of global democracy if America walks away https://t.co/HRhyno4N3P
— Harvard Kennedy School (@Kennedy_School) May 18, 2025
London School of Economics (LSE) political scientist Patrick Dunleavy replied to Burns: “Well, I think Oxford, Cambridge, and LSE will also attract some new applications… and staff. Who wants to study or research at the whims of a clearly pretty deranged President and an anti-intellectual set of legislators?”
Note: Harvard responded to the DHS order, signed by Secretary Kristi Noem, by suing the Trump administration and asked for a restraining order. The New York Times reported today that “at the university’s request, a federal judge in Boston moved swiftly to block implementation of the federal government’s order.”
In the lawsuit, Harvard accused the Trump administration of exerting “clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students.”