Lead: President Donald Trump reinforced his administration’s mixed stance on foreign students, arguing on national television that limiting international enrollments would imperil U.S. colleges’ finances while critics cite security and intellectual-property concerns. In interviews, the president framed international students as an economic lifeline for universities and said cutting their numbers could 'destroy' parts of the higher-education system. The remarks come amid other federal actions — visa scrutiny, threats to revoke Chinese student visas, new H-1B fee proposals — that have already depressed some campuses’ international yields. University admissions directors and international-office leaders report enrollment declines this semester and uncertainty about future demand from key markets like China. Campus leaders must now balance enrollment recovery strategies with compliance, national-security scrutiny, and donor and state-level political pressures. Changes to international flows will affect tuition revenue, research staffing, and graduate-program pipelines that rely heavily on foreign-born scholars.