Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst faced intense questioning from her constituents during a Friday town hall, eliciting shouts and boos from community members over her support for President Trump’s contentious One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The first speaker offered Ernst a softball question, telling the National Guard veteran that his sole request was for her to be the guest speaker at the American Legion for Memorial Day next year.

But just minutes into the hour-long session in Butler County, Iowa, the tenor quickly shifted. The crowd grew tense and Ernst appeared flip and defensive.

Ernst was repeatedly peppered with questions about the thousand-page bill, with many attendees focusing on proposed cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP. Ernst defended the bill, arguing that those eliminated from these programs would be people who were not eligible to benefit from them in the first place.

“When you’re arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million (people) … they are not eligible so they will be coming off,” Ernst said.

Someone in the crowd shouted in response: “People are going to die.”

“Well, we all are going to die,” Ernst responded. “For heaven’s sakes, folks,” she continued with a smile.

The crowd, which had already grown hostile to Ernst’s tone, erupted in roars of disapproval.

The GOP budget package is a sweeping piece of legislation that would provide massive tax cuts to the wealthy and slash funding for social programs including Medicaid and food assistance.

A version of the bill narrowly passed in the House earlier this month — eking by with a final vote of 215-214.

But the act faces pushback in the Senate over concerns regarding some of the more consequential aspects of the legislation, which include: extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — with about $3.8 trillion in cuts overall, largely for the nation’s top earners; raising the national debt ceiling by $4 trillion; and costly fees on asylum seekers and those who sponsor unaccompanied minors.

As written, the bill is projected to add trillions to the nation’s debt over the next decade.

The bill is now going through the process of reconciliation — a complicated Senate process that would allow Republicans to avoid a filibuster by Democratic legislators and pass the bill on a simple majority.

Back at the Iowa town hall, Ernst continued to spar with voters over her support for these changes.

In another heated exchange, a man — who identified himself as a Navy veteran and retired school superintendent — grilled Ernst about Trump’s authoritarian style of governing.

“Are you afraid of Trump? Are you corrupt like Trump? Or are you just at the point that you don’t care anymore and that’s why you don’t do anything?,” the man asked to cheers.

Her response set off another round of dissenting yells.

“Obviously I don’t agree because I don’t think our country is being destroyed,” she said as the crowd offered shouts in protest.

After the event, Ernst posted a message to social media, appearing unbothered by the turn of events at the town hall.

“Thanks folks for coming out to my town hall in Parkersburg today,” she wrote. “I always enjoy hearing from constituents and sharing my work to cut government red tape for you.”

Justin, a Chinese PhD student at an Ivy League university, had always planned to settle in the US but the 25-year-old is abandoning the idea after a crackdown on immigrants and academia and is considering studying elsewhere.

This week, Washington told US embassies to suspend the visa approval process for foreign students pending additional screening of their social media activities.

Marco Rubio, secretary of state, then pledged to “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas, especially those studying in “critical fields” or linked to the Communist party.

Rubio’s comments are part of measures against foreign academia and students, particularly those from China, that analysts say is eroding America’s reputation there as a safe destination for overseas study and leading many to consider backup plans in other countries.

“If the government sets such a precedent . . . allowing xenophobic sentiments to go unchecked, there will inevitably come a time when large-scale anti-Chinese incidents occur,” said Justin, who requested that only his first name be used.

He added he was considering applying to Oxford and Cambridge universities in the UK as a “Plan B”. “The US is no longer an ideal place for scientific research,” he said.

The number of Chinese students at US universities has fallen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic, in part because of initiatives including the now-defunct “China Initiative” that targeted alleged espionage in academia during the first Trump administration.

Last year, the Chinese student intake in the US totalled more than 277,000, down 4 per cent from a year earlier and 26 per cent from nearly 373,000 in 2019-20. The total number of international students in the US hit an all-time high last year of 1.1mn. 

The industry is facing structural challenges, said Julian Fisher, co-founder of Venture Education, a Beijing-based market intelligence consultancy.

Not only are mainland Chinese parents becoming more discerning, increasingly opting only for the top-ranked institutions, there is more competition from institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore. China’s demographic decline also meant that the pool of customers was set to fall, he said.

“Perhaps the bigger existential question here is if we have already passed the apex of Chinese students studying overseas,” Fisher said, adding that the Trump administration’s policies could speed up the trend.

Since the latest measures were announced, interest for “study abroad in the US” on Chinese search engine Baidu has dropped to 65 per cent of what it was a year earlier, according to analysis by Venture Education using data from Baidu Index.

Australia appears to be the most popular followed by Singapore and the UK, the analysis suggested.

Frida Cai, head of business development at Ivyray Edu, an education consultancy, said some clients were considering alternatives such as the UK, Hong Kong or Australia. Ivyray Edu advises those applying for a US visa to be cautious about what they post online.

President Donald Trump’s policies have led to a “lack of confidence among parents” in Hong Kong, said Will Kwong, managing director of AAS Education, a consultancy.

“Unless the students have family links in the US, the overall market appetite has dropped significantly,” he said. Kwong was helping students come up with “Plan Bs” that include the UK and Australia.

Interest among Hong Kong students in the US had in any case plummeted in recent months to about one-quarter of pre-pandemic levels, he said, with those interested in technology, AI, aerospace and engineering often avoiding the US.

Beijing has described the US policies as evidence of the “hypocrisy” underlying Washington’s “long-touted claims of freedom and openness”.

“It will only further damage the United States’ international image and national credibility,” the foreign ministry said of Rubio’s threat. 

These comments highlight President Xi Jinping’s efforts to tout China’s authoritarian system as a viable development model for other countries as Beijing seeks to attract more overseas students from the developing world. 

On Chinese social media, students have voiced their anger and confusion.

One student set to begin a masters in design at Harvard this year described how her study visa was initially approved by the US embassy in Beijing last week. The following day she received an email saying it had been refused because Harvard had lost its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. When a judge blocked the ban, it was later issued.

“Am I worried?” the student, who did not want to be identified, told the Financial Times. “Yes of course. There’s a new policy every other day; it’s quite unpredictable.” For those looking to study overseas next year, she said: “I’d suggest to them to have backup plans.”

Still, at the US embassy in Beijing this week, some students, whose visa interviews had been scheduled before the latest suspension, were cautiously optimistic about going to the US.

One Chinese student who identified himself only as Austin said he was returning to New York University to complete a masters programme in computer engineering. “The resources and the teachers are great at NYU,” Austin said. 

He said, however, that, while in the US, he always carried his passport with him in case immigration officers stopped him on the street. Deportation or visa revocations were always a risk, he said.

“I think more of these things definitely will happen under Trump,” he said.