America’s universities are among the best in the world, and because of that, they have historically attracted the best students in the world; but what happens when that stops being true?
The answer, as revealed by the Trump administration’s attacks on universities and international students, is a brain drain and loss of “soft power,” defined as a country’s ability to influence others without resorting to coercive pressure. As billions of dollars and millions of students flow away from the U.S., the resulting power vacuum is filled by competing countries. China’s pull for African students, for example, has severe implications for the continent’s future leaders and loyalty.
Already, China exercises huge strategic economic influence over Africa, sparking accusations of debt-trap diplomacy and neocolonialism in the fastest urbanizing region in the world. The contrasting loss of U.S. influence is just one example of the future consequences of weakening American soft power.
Slammed doors for visa applicants have been one of the Trump administration’s most effective methods of limiting international students. 49.9% fewer Visas were issued in June of 2025 than in the same month the previous year. Also in June, Trump attempted– and failed– to suspend all visas for new overseas students planning to attend Harvard in the fall. In May, one protester held a sign that read, “Harvard is not Harvard without international students.” Underestimating the accuracy of that claim could cost America its world standing.
Of America’s 410 individual academic Nobel Laureates, 35% were immigrants. In the 2024-25 academic year, international students contributed $42.9 billion to the economy. Still, the 17% decline in new international student enrollment meant that in the fall, contributions dropped by $1.1 billion. Alongside innovation, entrepreneurship is also suffering. Current or former international students founded one quarter of U.S. billion-dollar startup companies.
Additionally, only 41% of international students graduating between 2012 and 2020 still lived in the U.S. in 2021, likely due to visa and policy restrictions. This can damage local returns on investment into international students. The good news, however, is that foreign students who return to their home countries do return with stronger ties to the country in which they were educated, a benefit currently being reaped by China with African students.
Experts have suggested several solutions to the slow draining of U.S. soft power. The late Joseph Nye, former dean of Harvard Kennedy School and assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, coined the term “soft power” and made three main recommendations in April of 2025 for how civil society can protect it: the first, “continuing to educate foreign students and fostering better understanding of the U.S.”
Organizations like FWD.us agree, and in fact take it a step further, advocating for greater post-graduation opportunities and pathways to permanent residency. However, with an administration that has been anything but subtle in its aggressive anti-immigration agenda, odds of this are grim.
Nye’s second suggestion was to have organizations “exert soft power through global humanitarian efforts,” a method proven effective by the Chinese via both health and infrastructure projects. Third, he suggested that “American civil groups can attract people abroad to American values and set an example by robustly pursuing their constitutionally protected domestic activities,” and the effectiveness of this idea has, ironically, been demonstrated by the damage done to the attractiveness of American universities by the perceived loss of these values by foreign students.
Faculty firings, topic restrictions, restrictions on student speech, the handling of pro-Palestinian protests and the subsequent targeting of foreign students critical of the Gaza conflict by the Trump administration for arrest and deportation are some of the issues that have disillusioned foreign applicants.
Actions like threatening to take Greenland and the Panama Canal have also not helped American popularity, and as stated by Nye, “suggest that you’re not even thinking about America first, you’re thinking about America alone.” In a world with an international talent race, this is just not sustainable.
