In a dramatic showdown between President Donald J. Trump’s America First administration and the entrenched globalist education bureaucracy, every single member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has resigned in protest.

Their mass exit follows Trump’s aggressive reforms aimed at halting foreign exploitation of U.S. academic institutions — reforms that have sent shockwaves through the liberal university-industrial complex.

In a public letter released Wednesday, the board claimed it “voted overwhelmingly” to resign rather than “endorse unprecedented actions” by the Trump administration that they allege are “impermissible under the law” and “undermine the mission and mandates” of the nearly 80-year-old Fulbright program.

What prompted their outrage? President Trump is cutting off foreign nationals who pose national security risks — and revoking awards to more than a thousand so-called “scholars” who were already under review.

Trump officials have cited rising threats from foreign adversaries who’ve used academic exchange programs to penetrate America’s research and infrastructure. The Fulbright program, once seen as a diplomatic tool, has become a soft target for infiltration, critics say.

Just this week, a Chinese national from a Wuhan science university, Chengxuan Han, was caught smuggling biological material into the U.S. for use at a University of Michigan lab.

“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien… is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr.

“This is a direct threat to public safety and national security,” added FBI Special Agent Cheyvoryea Gibson, who emphasized that the bureau has “zero tolerance” for this type of foreign academic abuse.

According to court records, Han admitted to shipping petri dishes of nematode growth medium and envelopes containing genetic plasmids— materials often used in biological experiments.

She was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, sponsored by the same global academic pipeline the Fulbright Board is now defending.

The Trump administration reportedly denied awards to dozens of foreign nationals who had already been selected for the 2025–2026 academic year and launched a review process for over 1,200 more, according to the board’s resignation letter.

The Fulbright Board, created by Congress, insisted it had historically operated with “independence” under both parties. But Trump’s actions, they claim, “usurped” their authority and “contradicted the statute.”

What they don’t mention: Congress never gave the Fulbright Board the power to bypass U.S. national security interests.

A White House official familiar with the matter stated that the administration’s actions are “fully in line with the President’s directive to protect American universities from foreign sabotage.”

“Let’s be honest — the Fulbright Board has operated like a rubber-stamp visa factory for decades,” the official said. “Trump is putting America’s safety and sovereignty first. If that makes bureaucrats uncomfortable, they can resign.”

Earlier this year, the Stanford Review exposed what it called an “alleged network of Chinese espionage” operating on its own campus, fueled by $64 million in Chinese Communist Party-linked funding.

The article warned of “transnational repression” and a culture of silence, created in part by weak oversight and university leadership unwilling to challenge foreign influence.

The Fulbright resignations come just as President Trump ramps up his campaign to clean house in academia, targeting the bureaucracies and backdoor channels that for years have allowed America's enemies to gain access to our labs, data, and intellectual property.

In their letter, the board warned Congress and the courts to prevent the “dismantling” of the program. But critics say the dismantling of unchecked foreign access is exactly what America needs.

“Injecting politics into the Fulbright program” is what the board accuses Trump of doing.

But for millions of Americans, Trump is injecting common sense and patriotism into a broken system that’s been left unguarded for far too long.