Trump’s crackdown could affect future Belgium queen at Harvard

Princess Elisabeth, the 23-year-old future queen of Belgium, could see her Harvard enrollment affected by the Donald Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at the Ivory League university.

“Princess Elisabeth has just completed her first year. The impact of [the Trump administration’s] decision will only become clearer in the coming days or weeks,” said a spokesperson for the Belgian royal palace, Lore Vandoorne. “We are currently investigating.”

The university currently hosts nearly 6,800 international students, with many facing the same future as Princess Elisabeth. International students make up about 27 per cent of the university’s population. The latest decision from the Homeland Security Department comes amid growing tensions between federal officials and Harvard over the Trump administration’s claims that the university has implemented inadequate responses to antisemitism on its campus.

Trump vs Harvard University

Trump’s government in a legal battle against Harvard University. On Thursday, it revoked the institution’s right to enrol international students, forcing them to either sign up to a different university or lose their legal status in the United States.

“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s letter on the DHS’s X account says. 

“The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university to maintain their nonimmigrant status,” Noem’s letter reads.

The secretary told Harvard, “It is a privilege to enrol foreign students, and it is also a privilege to employ aliens on campus.”

Noem says the university failed to comply with her April 16 request for records of nonimmigrant students enrolled at Harvard University, and information about foreign students’ misconduct and other offences which would be grounds for their inadmissibility or removal.

‘The evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism’

The secretary said that as a consequence, a message to Harvard and all other universities would be sent, making it clear that the” Trump Administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses.”

In a separate press release, the homeland security department said: “Secretary Noem is following through on her promise to protect students and prohibit terrorist sympathisers from receiving benefits from the US government.”

The DHS accused Harvard of creating an “unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.”

Harvard has rebuked the government’s actions

A Harvard spokesperson called the government’s action “unlawful” in a Thursday Guardian statement.

“We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university – and this nation – immeasurably,” the spokesperson said.

“We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

In April, Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, said that “no government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue”.

Garber also said: “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights … The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to pursuing, producing and disseminating knowledge.”