While I like HN for technical debates, why would you expect the crowd here to have any special knowledge about this? The best you're going to get is more speculation.

That was absolutely the idea, try to force a win-win scenario for his base. Either he gets rid of foreigners (win) or colleges reopen and corona isn't so bad (win).

I think it was more a punitive action against both foreigners and higher education in general. Remember that Trump doesn't care about anyone whose presence in the U.S. cannot directly benefit him, his family's businesses, his party, or his reelection campaign. Highly-educated people and naturalized citizens are among the least likely Trump voters you could imagine. Of course he doesn't care about how these sorts of actions affect universities and foreign students. He will take advantage of any opportunity to harm non-white, non-U.S. born people (see: literally everything he's done relating to immigration) and higher education (see: Title IX reforms and endowment taxes).

Yes.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/506248-cuccinell...