Donald Trump has condemned pro-Palestinian protests sweeping US colleges, saying the level of “hate” was far worse than during the notoriously deadly right-wing extremist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
“We have protests everywhere,” Trump told AFP as he left a Manhattan courtroom where he is on trial for falsifying business documents. “Charlottesville was nothing in comparison – and the hate was not the kind we have today, it’s massive hate,” the former US president said.
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The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brought together nationalists from across the country. It culminated when a protester drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 people. It took Trump 48 hours to respond to the violence, saying that there were “very good people” on both sides of the protests, which drew widespread criticism, BGNES recalled.
President Joe Biden has often told the story of how he came out of retirement to run for president in 2020 after Trump refused to clearly condemn the Charlottesville rally. During their first debate, in September of that year, Trump angered many Americans by again refusing to condemn far-right groups. Instead, addressing a right-wing nationalist group called the Proud Boys, he told them to “stay away and not interfere”.
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The group celebrated its mention by the president by adopting the words as part of its new logo — underscoring concerns that supremacists are tacitly encouraged by Trump’s failure to unequivocally condemn their ideology. Two days later, when pressed to explain, Trump said he had in fact condemned all of their actions.
Pro-Palestinian protests have spread to more and more US college campuses. Students are organizing occupations over the growing human toll of Israel’s war with Hamas. Hundreds of people have been arrested so far. Biden, who has made clear his support for ally Israel, supported the students’ right to free speech.
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