Former US President Donald Trump recently slammed the anti-Israel protests erupting across college campuses as a "radical revolution" and vowed to deport foreign student protesters if he wins the upcoming presidential election. According to the Washington Post, Mr Trump, while speaking at a donor event in New York, called the demonstrators part of a "radical revolution" and promised to crush pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses. He also praised the New York Police Department for clearing the campuses at Columbia University and said other cities needed to follow suit, saying "It (anti-Israel protests) has to be stopped now".
"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," Donald Trump said on May 14, the outlet reported citing donors at the event.
"If you get me elected, and you should really be doing this, if you get me reelected, we're going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years," he added.
Washington Post cited donors who were present at the event. Speaking behind closed doors, the former president also said that he supports Israel's right to continue "its war on terror" and boasted of his White House policies toward Israel.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt blamed US President Joe Biden for empowering the protesters. "Joe Biden has sided with radical leftist Democrats like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib and empowered antisemitic protestors destroying our college campuses and threatening to undermine our democracy," Ms Leavitt said.
"President Trump will side with Jewish Americans and American citizens, period, and he will not tolerate terrorist sympathizers on our college campuses," she added.
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Previously, Mr Trump had publicly vowed to clamp down on anti-Israel protesters. Weeks after the October 7 Hamas attack, Mr Trump pledged to deport the "Resident aliens" who joined "pro-jihadists protest". "If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihadists, then we don't want you in our country, and you're not going to be getting into our country," Mr Trump said, as per New York Post.
"I will cancel the student visas of Hamas sympathizers on college campuses and all resident aliens who join in pro-Jihadists protests," he went on. "Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," he said.
In the recent meeting, Mr Trump again supported Israel's right to continue its attack on Gaza. "But I'm one of the only people that says that now. And a lot of people don't even know what October 7th is," he said.
