Trump’s Harvard international student ban could derail Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth’s studies

Brussels — Belgium’s Royal Palace said Friday that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is waiting to find out whether she can return to Harvard for her second year after President Trump announced a ban on foreign students at the university.

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. Harvard filed a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration, arguing that its action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

The school said Friday that it would file for a temporary restraining order to block the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the Trump administration’s move.

“We are looking into the situation, to see what kind of impact this decision might have on the princess, or not. It’s too early to say right now,” said the Belgian palace’s communications head, Xavier Baert.

Baert said that Princess Elisabeth, 23, had completed her first year of a graduate school program at Harvard and would spend the summer back in Belgium. “And we’ll have to see what happens next year,” he said.

The princess is the first of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and has been studying for a Master in Public Policy. Last year, she obtained a degree in history and politics at Lincoln College at Oxford in the U.K.

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.

About 1,000 of Harvard’s foreign students come from China, and the Trump administration has specifically accused Harvard of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”

China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the ban on Harvard accepting international students “by the U.S. side will only damage its own image and international credibility,” as a university in Hong Kong publicly invited foreign students who could be denied access to the Ivy League school to join its student body instead.