The United States Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification on May 22, barring the institution from admitting new international students for the 2025-26 academic year and forcing current ones to transfer schools or risk losing their legal status.

This move reflects the growing conflict between US President Donald Trump’s administration and the elite academic culture represented by Harvard. More broadly, it lays bare the political, educational and social fractures within US society.

At the heart of the issue lies a political and ideological showdown. Harvard has long been a bastion of liberal mindsets and progressive ideas, aligning more closely with the Democratic Party, whose values often run counter to Trump’s conservative stance and anti-elitist inclination. The two sides hold opposing views on a broad range of issues, including climate policy, immigration, women’s rights, racial matters and public health.

Ultimately, Trump’s crackdown on Harvard is driven by an effort to constrain Democratic political culture. Harvard alumni occupy powerful positions within US governance, including sitting Democratic senators, representatives and liberal-leaning Supreme Court justices. Their impact reaches deep into the country’s legislative and judicial systems. Faced with this entrenched influence, Trump is determined to leverage federal authority to interfere in higher education as a means to weaken the Democrats’ cultural stronghold.

This action also appears to be part of Trump’s underlying agenda to lay the groundwork for the 2026 midterm elections. With Republican support in decline, he urgently needs high-impact policies to consolidate his conservative voter base. Measures such as restricting international student enrollment and cracking down on campus protests serve his political strategy centered on opposing elites, immigration and globalization. By portraying international students as outsiders taking resources and spreading dangerous ideas, the Trump administration seeks to fuel the divide between “America First” and globalism, inflame populist anger and boost voter turnout among conservative constituents.

Although Trump’s academic suppression policies have yet to fully materialize and still face considerable uncertainty, their potential impact is already clear. It is foreseeable that such a ban will inevitably accelerate the outflow of top-tier talent from the US, undermining the very foundation of the country’s higher education and innovation.

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