Trump falsely claims Harvard won’t say who its international students are
President Donald Trump said Harvard University refuses to tell the U.S. government who its international students are.
On May 22, the Trump administration stripped Harvard of the federal government certification that lets it enroll international students. A federal judge on May 23 temporarily blocked the administration’s effort.
“Part of the problem with Harvard is that there are about 31% of foreigners coming to Harvard … but they refuse to tell us who the people are,” Trump told reporters May 25. “We want a list of those foreign students and we’ll find out whether or not they’re OK. Many will be OK, I assume. And I assume with Harvard many will be bad.”
The Department of Homeland Security says Harvard did not provide the information it requested about the university’s international students. DHS cited that as one reason for revoking Harvard’s certification. But Harvard disputed that in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Related Knowledge Center: Fact-checking and its detractors
Fact-checking has become a familiar tool for political reporters to hold office-holders and candidates accountable. But critics ask if fact-checkers sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and if the practice often struggles with false equivalency the way conventional political coverage does.