Former President Donald Trump was criticized after baselessly suggesting that nationwide college protests against Israel's deadly campaign in Palestine were somehow orchestrated to distract from the migrant crisis and President Joe Biden's stance on immigration.
Trump suggested that the "Radical Left" has used the protests as cover, repeating Fox News talking points that the protests are "paid agitators" distracting from the ongoing migrant crisis.
His remarks came amid a wave of nationwide student protests against the war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where at least 34,000 Palestinians and dozens of journalists and aid workers have been killed since the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stormed the Gaza Strip in response the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, which resulted in 1,200 deaths.
Trump wrote:
“Do you think that the Radical Left Lunatics that are causing all of the CHAOS at our Colleges and Universities are doing so in order to take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border, where millions of people, many from prisons and mental institutions, are pouring into our Country? Just askin’…???”
You can see his post below.
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Trump claims that Biden's immigration policies are too lenient and has labeled crimes committed by undocumented immigrants as "Biden migrant crime."
Trump has used inflammatory language to describe undocumented immigrants, calling them "animals" when discussing alleged criminal activities and stating they are "poisoning the blood of our country." Critics have condemned his rhetoric as xenophobic and reminiscent of Nazi language, to which Trump has claimed ignorance of Adolf Hitler's use of similar phrases.
He published his post condemning the "Radical Left" protesters as he continues to face legal challenges pertaining to campaign finance violations, the Capitol riot, and his alleged theft of classified documents. Notably, his hush money trial—focused around his use of campaign funds to pay off multiple women ahead of the 2016 presidential election—has seen heightened tensions and this week the judge overseeing the case found Trump in contempt of court, and imposed $9,000 in fines for nine violations of his gag order.
But his latest bogus attempt to score political points exposed him to further criticism.
Protests at Columbia University began last month after more than 50 pro-Palestinian students established an encampment and charged that Israel is actively committing genocide while actively demanding that the Ivy League university divest from Israel in response to its occupation of Palestinian territories.
The day after the encampment was set up, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik authorized the New York City Police Department to clear the campus, resulting in mass arrests. Despite this, protestors quickly erected a new encampment the next day.
When discussions regarding divestment reached an impasse, protesters occupied Hamilton Hall on Tuesday, leading to a large-scale response from police and the university administration. This marked the first time since the 1968 Vietnam War protests that Columbia had allowed police to intervene on campus.
Nearly 100 individuals were arrested last night as NYPD officers cleared Hamilton Hall. The university has requested the NYPD maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17, two days after the scheduled graduation.
The Columbia University protests sparked a wider movement, inspiring similar encampments and ongoing protests at institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the University of Michigan, and other universities across the nation.
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