Trump demands end to campus protests, then extols Jan. 6 rioters

Donald Trump, who extols Jan. 6 rioters, has called for the forceful eviction of university campus protesters and encampments.

In rally speeches and social-media missives, the former president called the student demonstrators and others he said are “causing chaos” at colleges and universities “Radical Left Lunatics.” He also mused whether the wave of protests, rooted in the six-month-plus war in Gaza, is intended “to take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border.”

Addressing a rally last week, the 2024 presumptive Republican nominee called on university officials across the United States to end the demonstrations.

“To every college president, I say: Remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all the normal students who want a safe place in which to learn,” Trump said.

On Monday, outside the Manhattan courtroom where he is on trial, Trump lamented a report from Axios that Columbia University, scene of some of the most intense protests, had canceled its graduation ceremony.

“That shouldn’t happen,” he said. The law-and-order call, however, is juxtaposed against Trump’s ongoing salute, sympathizing and lauding of the individuals who combatively stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, violently beating police, vandalizing congressional offices and interrupting the peaceful transfer of power via the electoral vote count in the 2020 election.

Trump has said he would pardon an untold number of the more than 1,000 men and women who have been charged, convicted or sentenced to prison terms. He has called them hostages and political prisoners.

Trump has begun playing a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” sung by those jailed for their crimes as the introduction sung at some of his rallies. This weekend, according to reports, Trump boasted during remarks to donors at Mar-a-Lago that the recording surged to the top spot on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales Chart.

The subset of imprisoned rioters includes the most serious offenders — those who attacked police and were found guilty of sedition charges.

Trump initially said he might not extend presidential forgiveness to the most violent perpetrators.

PROVIDED BY FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY PRESS A pro-Palestinian march last October at Florida Atlantic University’s campus was organized by the FAU Muslim Student Association. It included about 100 protesters and ultimately was met with counterprotesters, resulting in three arrests.