Former US president Donald Trump has vowed to suppress ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations in American universities, saying that he will “throw out” students who attend the protests, if he was elected back to office.
Speaking to a small group of predominantly Jewish donors at an event, Trump said he will deport all pro-Palestinian student protesters to ensure that they “behave.”
“One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Trump said.
Trump, 77, who is the presumptive Republican candidate, referred to the protests against Israel's genocide in Gaza as a "radical revolution" and assured donors that he would set the movement back 25 or 30 years with their support in defeating Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election in November.
“If you get me re-elected, we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” Trump replied, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the event.
In recent months, demonstrations against the Gaza war have rocked various educational institutions throughout America. The movement originated at Columbia University in New York, where the use of tent enclosures and campus occupations led to the disruption of the final weeks of classes and the cancelation of the graduation ceremony.
The ex-president commended the New York police for their efforts in clearing the encampments at Columbia University and suggested that other cities should follow suit. “It has to be stopped now," stated Trump.
Republicans have been actively attempting to turn the campus protests into a focal point of the upcoming election, portraying them as a representation of "chaos" running rampant under Biden's leadership.
According to The Washington Post, Republican donors have urged Trump to adopt a more assertive position in backing Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump has also reportedly told the donors in private that he backs Israel's right to persist in its ongoing genocide.
His latest remarks do not mark the first occasion he has shown backing for Israel during the ongoing Gaza conflict, as in a previous interview on Fox News in March, Trump declared his unwavering support for Israel and endorsed their military actions against Gazans, stating that “you have to finish the problem.”