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President Donald Trump is facing backlash after claiming that historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) would fail without tuition revenue from Chinese students.
During a Fox News interview on Monday (November 10), Trump said China deserved more credit for keeping U.S. colleges afloat.
“We do have a lot of people coming in from China,” Trump said. “We also have a massive system of colleges and universities, and if we were to cut that in half… you would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business. You would have the historically Black colleges and universities would all be out of business.”
Trump's comments immediately went viral, sparking backlash from social media users.
“Since when did HBCUs rely on Chinese students???” one person wrote.
“Historically B L A C K Colleges and Universities relying on Chinese students???” another user questioned.
“Somebody said he thinks the ‘C’ in HBCU means Chinese,” a third user quipped.
Data contradicts Trump’s claim. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, international students make up just 2.5 percent of total HBCU enrollment, with most coming from Africa and the Caribbean, not China.
“Funny, I didn’t see a single Chinese student at my son’s freshman ceremony at Morehouse in August,” another comment reads.
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