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Did president trump really say that nursing is nog a PDF
Executive summary
Coverage from multiple outlets shows the U.S. Department of Education, under President Donald Trump’s administration and its “One Big Beautiful Bill” implementation, moved to exclude nursing (MSN, DNP and some post‑baccalaureate programs) from a regulatory list of “professional degrees,” which changes borrowing limits for many nursing graduate students (see People, Newsweek, Snopes) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting documents broad outrage from nursing groups and describes which programs were kept on the “professional” list and which were excluded [2] [4] [5].
1. What actually changed — the policy, not a single quote
The news reports and fact checks describe an administrative change in how the Department of Education defines “professional degree” for student‑loan caps implemented after the One Big Beautiful Bill; nursing graduate programs were removed from the category that qualifies for the highest borrowing limits, meaning graduate nursing students face lower annual and lifetime loan caps than “professional students” retained on the list [3] [2] [6].
2. Did President Trump literally say “nursing is not a PDF” (or similar)?
Available sources do not quote President Trump saying a phrase like “nursing is not a PDF” or that exact wording. Reporting attributes the reclassification to actions by the Department of Education implementing the administration’s bill and rules, not to a specific pithy verbal quote from the president himself [2] [3] [4].
3. How the reporting frames responsibility and process
Reporting repeatedly notes the change stems from statute and Department of Education rulemaking tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill and Secretary Linda McMahon’s office; outlets describe the department’s decision to exclude listed fields and to apply new borrowing caps, rather than presenting a direct presidential utterance as the operative mechanism [5] [4] [3].
4. What the change means for students in plain terms
Under the new law and DOE implementation, only students in degrees classified as “professional” can access the larger loan ceilings (examples of degrees kept include medicine, law, pharmacy); nursing and several allied fields were placed outside that cohort, which reduces the amount many nursing graduate students can borrow and eliminates Grad PLUS as a fallback — a shift nursing organizations warn will make advanced training more expensive and harder to fund [2] [1] [7].
5. Who is objecting and what are their arguments
National nursing organizations (American Nurses Association, AACN) and university nursing leaders are quoted as “deeply concerned,” warning the policy will reduce the pipeline of advanced practice nurses and affect rural and underserved care; news pieces cite these organizational responses directly [4] [5] [1].
6. Where fact‑checkers and outlets agree and disagree
Mainstream outlets and a Snopes inspection agree a reclassification occurred and circulated widely online as a news item; Snopes documents the list of excluded fields and ties the change to the One Big Beautiful Bill’s loan caps, while media coverage highlights the political fallout and stakeholder outrage — there is consensus on the administrative fact, variation in emphasis on consequences [3] [8] [2].
7. Common misinterpretations to watch for
Two errors appear repeatedly online: treating the action as a single soundbite from the president rather than administrative rulemaking, and assuming the regulatory list change was new statutory language rather than an application of loan‑cap categories created by the 2025 law. Sources show the Department of Education applied the list while implementing the law, rather than citing a presidential quote as the operative act [3] [2].
8. What reporters and nursing groups want next
Coverage shows nursing associations asking the Education Department to reconsider, and journalists flag potential downstream workforce and access issues; outlets emphasize this is a live policy debate with clear stakeholders pressing for reinstatement or legislative fixes [4] [7] [5].
Limitations and final note: reporting in the provided sources documents the Department of Education’s reclassification and broad reactions but does not present or cite a literal utterance by President Trump using the phrasing in your query; if you are seeing a viral quote, that phrasing is not documented in the articles and fact‑check summary available here [2] [3].