(Photo : Photo by MARK PETERSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump said he backs giving foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges a green card so they can stay in the county, a sharp departure from his usual hardline immigration comments on the campaign trail.

Former President Donald Trump, who routinely spouts harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric at his campaign rallies, is now suggesting that foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges should be rewarded with a green card so they can stay in the country. 

Trump was asked on the "All-In" podcast about his plans to attract the "best and brightest" from around the globe to the United States, pertaining to recruiting high-tech workers.

"What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges, too," he said.

"Anybody graduates from a college. You go there for two years or four years. If you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country," he continued, noting that his administration would take on the issue immediately upon taking office.

He added that it is "so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools, also."

It was a surprising position from Trump. The podcast comments with tech industry executives don't reflect his hardline campaign trail rhetoric where he has promoted his border wall and accused migrants of "poisoning the blood our our country."

In 2020, he signed an executive order freezing green cards for new immigrants and suspending work visas for temporary workers, such as the H-1B visa used by professional and tech workers to protect American jobs. 

Speaking at a predominantly Black church in Detroit last Saturday, Trump told the congregants that migrants coming to the U.S. are "taking your jobs."

"They're coming into your community, and they're taking your jobs," he said. "We have to get them out." 

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a large-scale immigration program that will offer legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. citizenship to some 500,000 currently unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens.