President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes talks with Harvard University are showing signs of progress and he expects the Ivy League school to soon provide the administration a list of foreign students it has requested.

A group of 18 leading US research universities, including Princeton, MIT, Caltech and Johns Hopkins, asked a federal judge for permission to file legal arguments in support of Harvard University in its high-stakes showdown with the Trump administration over more than $2 billion in frozen grant money.