Trump calls campus pro-Palestine protests a ‘disgrace’ as Jewish leaders warn students to stay home

Donald Trump has branded the pro-Palestine protests sweeping college campuses across the US a “disgrace” as Jewish students are warned to stay home and the Columbia president faces falls to resign.

The former president waded in on the drama as he headed into court for day six of his hush money trial in Manhattan.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, he blamed the escalating protests across college campuses on President Joe Biden, claiming he has been putting out the “wrong signal” on Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza.

“He has the wrong tone. He’s got the wrong words. He doesn’t know who he’s backing. And it’s a mess,” Mr Trump told reporters outside the court.

He continued: “The signals he puts out are so bad. And I can tell you he’s no friend of Israel, that’s for sure, and he’s no friend of the Arab world.”

Once again, Mr Trump compared what he said was a large police presence keeping his supporters away from the court in Lower Manhattan to his perceived lack of law enforcement presence as protests have grown tense at nearby Columbia University and New York University in New York.

“We have more police presence here than anyone’s ever seen, for blocks you can’t get near this courthouse,” he said.

“And yet you have nobody up in a college, where you have very radical people wanting to rip the colleges down, the universities down. And that’s a shame.”

There have been multiple reports of police, including riot squads, in attendance outside colleges in recent days, with many officers cordoning off areas around campuses.

Over 100 arrests were made at Columbia University, over 150 at NYU, not to mention dozens at Yale University in Connecticut.

At NYU, leaders requested the New York Police Department’s presence to deal with “disorderly conduct” on Monday, saying students were “trespassing” and behaving in a “disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing” manner.

Students have been protesting the ties their schools have to Israel, arguing that they need to cut off financial backers who are also aiding in the country’s conflict.

However, there have been multiple reports of antisemitic rhetoric during these protests, with the White House saying that “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous”.

Jewish leaders have urged students to stay away from Columbia’s campus while the protests take place and the college has switched to hybrid learning until the end of semester.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump said that Israel was “losing the PR war” and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “get it over with” and stop killing people.

His latest comments came before the former president entered the courtroom in Manhattan on Tuesday morning.

Mr Trump is charged with 34 felony charges over hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to silence her over an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election.

Mr Trump denies the affair took place and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The trial is one of four criminal cases against the former president.