Former President Donald Trump says he thinks “paid agitators” are operating among pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University.
“I really think you have a lot of paid agitators, professional agitators in here too, and I see it all over,” Mr. Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday. “You know, when you see signs and they’re all identical, that means they’re being paid by a source.”
“You know, these aren’t hand-painted signs where people would go to their basement and paint something because they really believed that. These are all signs that are identical, they’re made by the same printer,” he said. “And you know, when you see that that means there’s somebody at the top that’s paying, or a group that’s paying, and they’re doing a great disservice to the world, but they’re doing a great disservice to our country.”
New York Police Department officers wearing riot gear stormed Tuesday into the university’s administration building, Hamilton Hall, to remove protesters who occupied the building.
The Ivy League said it had “no choice” but to get police involved after administrators learned that Hamilton Hall “had been occupied, vandalized and blockaded.”
“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law,” the school said.
This comes as a growing number of university students across the country protest over the Israel-Hamas war. The students have called for their schools to divest from any Israeli entities it is connected with.
Encampments on Columbia’s campus have been set up for nearly two weeks. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that about 300 were arrested Tuesday during crackdowns at Columbia and City College.
Mr. Trump praised the city’s police officers, but said the protests should have been shut down before the students had the chance to take over the building.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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