Trump Claims He Doesn’t Want To Hurt Harvard. His Actions Show Otherwise.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed the “last thing” he wants to do is hurt Harvard, while his administration is still relentlessly hammering the elite university and as he mounted a new demand for the school to cap its admission of international students.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump conceded he wasn’t sure how his battle with the Ivy League school would end.

“Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper. They’ve got to behave themselves,” Trump said. “I’m looking out for the country and for Harvard. I want Harvard to do well. I want Harvard to be great again.”

Trump suggested Harvard should swiftly bend to his will, claiming that he bears no responsibility for the tough situation the country’s oldest university is facing.

“The last thing I want to do is hurt them. They’re hurting themselves,” Trump said of Harvard.

Trump suggested that Harvard should have followed the example of Columbia University, which was originally in the “hot seat” but brokered a deal with his administration after he threatened major federal funding cuts.

“Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their ass kicked,” Trump said.

Trump is exerting a maximum pressure strategy on Harvard. The State Department is now reviewing all the visas issued for people at the university, not just students, according to multiple news reports.

Trump on Wednesday also floated restricting the number of international students Harvard can enroll.

“I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15%,” he said. “We have people [who] want to go to Harvard and other schools; they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”

International students represent about a fourth of Harvard’s student body and also amount to a big source of income for the school.

His latest suggestion comes on the heels of his administration’s unsuccessful effort to revoke the school’s ability to enroll international students.

The crackdown on foreign students extends beyond Harvard. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the administration is looking to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students,” a day after he announced that U.S. embassies would for now stop scheduling new visa appointments for international students.

Meanwhile, Trump has also moved to cut billions of dollars in federal funding and grants for the school.

A constitutional law professor at Harvard said Trump has gone too far.

“He thinks he’s got the unilateral power that not even King George III had to pick those against whom he will exact retribution,” Laurence Tribe told CNN.

In a recent interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Harvard President Alan Garber added that he found Trump’s attacks “perplexing,” saying the action he’s taking against the school will hurt everyday Americans instead of addressing his supposed goal of fighting antisemitism on campus.