Former President Trump on Tuesday blasted a wave of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war, calling them a “disgrace to our country” and laying the blame on President Biden.
“What’s going on at the college level and the colleges — Columbia, NYU and others — is a disgrace,” Trump said as he arrived at a Manhattan courthouse for his hush money trial. “And it’s really on Biden. He has the wrong signal. He’s got the wrong tone. He’s got the wrong words. He doesn’t know who he’s backing. And it’s a mess.”
“If this were me, they’d be after me so much, but they’re trying to give him a pass,” Trump added. “What’s going on is a disgrace to our country.”
The former president complained that protesters supporting his cause were not allowed to gather right outside the courthouse where his trial is taking place.
“We have more police presence here than anyone’s ever seen, for blocks. You can’t get near this courthouse,” Trump said. “And if you have nobody up at a college, where you have very radical people wanting to rip the colleges down, the universities down, and that’s a shame.”
Columbia University, where swelling protests have drawn national attention, announced this week it would hold classes remotely to defuse tensions on campus. Students protesting against the war in Gaza, including Jewish students, have set up camp on Columbia’s central lawn and have demanded the university divest from companies that are profiting from the war.
Some Jewish leaders have raised concerns about the safety of Jewish students on campus.
Other protests at New York University, Yale University and elsewhere over the situation in Gaza have also garnered national attention, including from lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
Biden on Monday told reporters he condemned “antisemitic protests,” as well as “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” The White House a day earlier had also spoken out against antisemitism on college campuses.
GOP Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) called on Biden on Monday to deploy the National Guard to colleges, particularly Columbia.
More than 1,100 Israelis were killed last October in attacks carried out by Hamas, and more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during subsequent Israeli military operations. Biden has sought to balance support for Israel’s right to defend itself with calls for Israeli leaders to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
Trump has offered few details about how he would be handling the situation in Gaza, though he has said Israel is losing the public relations war because of images of buildings falling down and civilians being killed. The former president has also accused Jews who support Democrats of hating their religion.