Former President Trump criticized the protests taking place on college campuses across the country over the war in Gaza and questioned whether Columbia University students who occupied a building will face consequences similar to those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“This entire country is up in arms, storming colleges, destroying Columbia University,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday outside the courthouse where he is taking part in his first criminal trial, centered on an alleged money scheme. secret during the 2016 campaign.
“I mean, they took over, I know the building very well. They occupied a building, that’s a big deal,” continued the former president. “And I wonder if what’s going to happen to them will be anything comparable to what happened to J6, because they’re causing a lot of destruction, a lot of damage, a lot of people getting seriously injured.”
“I wonder if this will be the same kind of treatment they gave J6,” he added, referring to the January 6 protesters. “Let’s see how this all works out. I think I can give you the answer now. And that’s why people have lost faith in our judicial system.”
In recent days, Trump has criticized President Biden over the campus protests and tried to connect the outrage on campuses across the country to the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
His latest comments came after students took control from Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University in New York, blocking doors and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. The university closed the campus to everyone except students living in dorms there and essential employees.
The Associated Press reported About 1,000 people have been arrested on campuses across the country amid the protests.
The former president has previously downplayed the violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, compared to the ongoing unrest on college campuses. But Tuesday marked the first time he compared it to the events of Jan. 6, when Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to try to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
Hundreds of people were criminally charged in the aftermath of the insurrection, including many who pleaded guiltyand Trump himself faces federal charges in Washington, D.C., for his attempts to subvert the election and remain in power.
Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for the protesters charged in connection with January 6 and has said that one of his first acts, if re-elected, would be to free those arrested on charges in the riots.
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