Donald Trump

In a campaign video last summer, Trump said he would “fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” He added, “We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all.”

Such standards would include politically and culturally charged objectives such as “defending the American tradition and Western civilization” and “removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats,” as well as more prosaic goals such as offering more accelerated and low-cost degrees, and providing job placement and career services. 

During Trump’s presidency, the U.S. Department of Education made broad changes to rules for accreditors, including eliminating geographical boundaries for accreditors, loosening compliance standards for accredited bodies, making it easier for colleges to make institutional changes and get program approvals, and easing the path for new accreditors to become recognized.

Donald Trump

Trump has repeatedly attacked student protesters on college campuses and praised the New York City police officers who cleared a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Columbia University. 

He also called for other college administrators to take a similar approach, urging them to immediately remove encampments and "take back our campuses for all of the normal students.” The former president further advocated for the deportation of protesters, a proposal with no legal standing.

Donald Trump

Trump's platform calls for more affordable postsecondary alternatives to a four-year degree, rather than focusing on lowering the cost of traditional undergraduate education.

Trump has also proposed the creation of a free online college funded through a tax on large private university endowments. The so-called "American Academy" would allow students to transfer previous coursework. Trump said the online college would not allow "wokeness" — a common conservative complaint of traditional colleges.

Donald Trump

Trump has said in recent rallies that he wants to eliminate the Education Department and transfer its responsibilities to state governments. 

The department has several key charges, including overseeing federal financial aid, enforcing regulations governing colleges and investigating civil rights complaints at institutions. 

Trump’s proposal is in line with the GOP’s national platform, which likewise calls for closing the agency and sending “it back to the States, where it belongs.”

Donald Trump

Trump, who as a businessman launched the now-defunct Trump University in 2005, entered office in 2017 widely expected to be friendlier to the for-profit college industry than President Barack Obama was before him. While in office, critics such as the liberal think tank Center for American Progress accused the administration of having a “cozy relationship with predatory for-profit colleges.”

The Education Department under Trump revoked the Obama-era gainful employment rule, which sought to cut off federal funding to poor-performing career-education schools. The department also raised the bar for students trying to get loan relief from fraudulent colleges under the borrower defense rule.

Donald Trump

In 2019, Trump signed the Future Act, a bipartisan bill that gives historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions $255 million in funding each year. Trump boasted about this accomplishment during his debate in July with Biden, before the current president said he would no longer run for reelection. 

However, the leader of UNCF, which advocates on behalf of HBCUs, said in 2020 that while officials appreciated that Trump signed the legislation, they objected to the administration’s efforts to slash funding to federal programs such as Federal Work-Study. “Those programs help our students access college,” UNCF President and CEO Michael Lomax said.

Donald Trump

As president, Trump rolled out several policies that made it more difficult for international students to attend college in the U.S. 

In 2017, Trump issued an executive order barring entry to the U.S. from individuals from several Muslim-majority countries — widely referred to as a "Muslim ban"— a move that led to suspended visas for numerous international students. On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump has voiced support for similar policies.

The Trump administration also tightened restrictions on visas for highly skilled workers and moved to deport international students who were enrolled only in online classes during the coronavirus pandemic — a policy that was quickly reversed amid backlash. 

One study found that about 12% fewer foreign students enrolled in U.S. colleges during the first three years of Trump’s administration compared to the country’s top competitors for international enrollment. 

Yet Trump also said on a podcast this year that students who graduate from U.S. colleges should get green cards to stay in the country. His campaign later told Reuters that a second Trump administration would issue said green cards after "the most aggressive vetting process in U.S. history."

Donald Trump

Trump has spoken out against broad student loan debt relief and praised the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down Biden’s forgiveness plan.

Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has also spoken out against widespread debt relief efforts. In May, however, he co-introduced bipartisan legislation that would have allowed for student loan discharges if a borrower's child became "totally and permanently disabled."

Donald Trump

In April, the Education Department released a new rule on Title IX, the sweeping law barring federally funded colleges and schools from sex-based discrimination. The new rule extends the civil rights law’s protections to LGBTQI+ students, though federal judges have temporarily blocked the rule from being implemented in 26 states. 

Just weeks after the Title IX rule was released, Trump vowed to roll back the new rule’s protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump told a conservative radio show in May. 

Likewise, the Republican Party’s official platform vows to “reverse Biden’s radical rewrite” of the regulations.