(Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump reportedly told donors this month that he wants to “throw” radical student protesters “out of the country” if he is elected this November.
“One thing I do is [with] any student that protests—I throw them out of the country” Trump told the group during a May 14 roundtable, according to the Washington Post.
Specifically, he seemed to be referring to the revocation of student visas for those who were not U.S. citizens.
“You know, there are a lot of foreign students—as soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Trump said.
Several Republicans have argued for the federal government to revoke the student visas of foreign students studying in the U.S. if they have been proven to have participated in the protests as well as proposals to revoke any student loan amnesty for those who are U.S. citizens.
Earlier this month, for example, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, urged the Biden administration to investigate whether the student protesters violated U.S. law.
“The Immigration Nationality Act says if a student is here on a visa, and they’re engaged in activity that is against the law, they’re not supposed to be here,” Jordan said. “The visa is supposed to be taken away.”
Trump reportedly described the anti-Israel encampments that have erupted on campuses across the country as a “radical revolution,” and argued that they are just as anti-America as they are anti-Israel.
“It has to be stopped now,” he said.
In a statement this week, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt blasted President Joe Biden for empowering the student protesters but did not confirm whether Trump plans to revoke the student visas of foreign students who participated in the protests.
“Joe Biden has sided with radical leftist Democrats like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib and empowered antisemitic protestors destroying our college campuses and threatening to undermine our democracy,” Leavitt said. “President Trump will side with Jewish Americans and American citizens, period, and he will not tolerate terrorist sympathizers on our college campuses.”
