By: Casey Harper | The Center Square
Former President Donald Trump weighed in online on the ongoing chaos on college campuses as pro-Hamas protesters occupy and vandalize colleges around the country.
“THIS IS A RADICAL LEFT REVOLUTION TAKING PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY,” Trump wrote Thursday on TruthSocial, his social media site.
“WHERE IS CROOKED JOE BIDEN? WHERE IS GOVERNOR NEWSCUM?” Trump added, an apparent reference to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose home state has seen some of the fiercest demonstrations at UCLA.
“THE DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY IS FROM THE LEFT, NOT FROM THE RIGHT!!!” Trump added.
Trump’s comments capture a repeated conservative argument, that conservative protesters like those on Jan. 6 were met with severe consequences while liberal protesters, like the Black Lives Matter rioters and the college campus pro-Hamas protesters, have been given a pass.
Biden has remained silent as local leaders navigate the protests, which have featured arrests, vandalism, some viral moments of fights, and calls for violence against Jews.
Many of the protests have also expressed outright support for Hamas, the group that killed hundreds of Israelis, many of them civilians and children, in the Oct. 7 attack last fall. The State Department has officially named Hamas a terrorist organization.
“The President, is being kept regularly updated on, on what’s happening, as you just stated, across the country,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing Wednesday. “He is monitoring the situation closely, so is his team.
“And I would just add that no president, no president has spoken more forcefully about combating antisemitism than this president,” she added.
When pressed on the protests specifically, Jean-Pierre urged that the protests remain peaceful.
“Look, we’ve been very clear on that,” she told reporters. “Americans have the right to peacefully protest. They have the right to peacefully protest as long as it’s within the law and that it’s peaceful.
“Forcibly taking over a building is not peaceful,” she continued, referencing protestors at Columbia University. “It’s just not. Students have the right to feel safe. They have the right to learn. They have the right to do this without disruption. And they have a right to feel safe on campus. As I just said, they have the right to attend their commencement without feeling unsafe.”
Trump’s election year comments highlight the difficult position for Democratic leaders who do not want to support the terrorist group Hamas, which polls show Americans do not agree with, but also have a portion of their party base protesting Israel’s efforts to root out the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
