Washington DC - President Donald Trump on Friday claimed Chinese students would be "OK" despite his administration's repeated attacks on their presence in the US.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed on Wednesday to "aggressively" revoke Chinese students' visas in the latest broadside against US higher education.

But when asked Friday what message he would send to Chinese college students in the country, Trump insisted: "It's going to work out fine."

"We just want to check out the individual students we have. And that's true with all colleges," he told reporters.

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A judge on Thursday extended a temporary block on Trump's bid to prevent Harvard from enrolling new international students, but Rubio has already canceled thousands of student visas, largely in a bid to crackdown on those speaking out against Israel's destruction of Gaza.

The Trump administration has been in an ongoing showdown with academia, and Harvard in particular, demanding it provide lists of students and submit to unprecedented government control. Harvard has so-far refused to comply.

"I don't know why Harvard's not giving us the list," Trump continued on Friday. "There's something going on because Harvard is not giving us a list."

"They ought to give us a list and get themselves out of trouble," he insisted, suggesting that "they don't want to give the list because they have names on there that supposedly are quite bad."