Former President Trump blasted the protests taking place on college campuses nationwide over the war in Gaza and questioned if Columbia University students who took over a building will face similar consequences to those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“This whole country is up in arms, breaking into colleges, knocking the hell out of Columbia University,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, standing outside the courtroom where he is attending his first criminal trial, centered on an alleged hush money scheme during the 2016 campaign.
“I mean, they took over, I know the building very well. They took over a building, that is a big deal,” the former president continued. “And I wonder if what’s going to happen to them will be anything comparable to what happened to J6, because they’re doing a lot of destruction, a lot of damages, a lot of people getting hurt very badly.”
“I wonder if that’s going to be the same kind of treatment they gave J6,” he added, referring to the Jan. 6 rioters. “Let’s see how that all works out. I think I can give you the answer right now. And that’s why people have lost faith in our court system.”
Trump has in recent days ripped President Biden over the college protests and tried to connect the outrage on campuses around the country to the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
HIs latest comments came after students seized control of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York City, barricading doors and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. The university has closed the campus to everyone except students who live in dorms there and essential employees.
The Associated Press reported roughly 1,000 people have been arrested on campuses nationwide amid the protests.
The former president had previously minimized the violence at a Charlottesville, Va., white nationalist rally in 2017 compared to the ongoing unrest on college campuses. But Tuesday marked the first time he’d compared it to the events of Jan. 6, when Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
Hundreds of people have been criminally charged in the aftermath of the insurrection, including many who pleaded guilty, and Trump himself is facing federal charges in Washington, D.C., over his attempts to subvert the election and remain in power.
Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for rioters charged in connection to Jan. 6, and has said one of his first acts if reelected would be freeing those imprisoned on charges over the riots.
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