Donald Trump has claimed London has become “unrecognisable” because it has “opened its doors to jihad” as he pledged not to let the same happen in the United States.

The former president said that British “culture” had been eroded by tolerance of pro-Palestine protesters in London and Paris.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Trump took aim at protesters who have staged two weeks of demonstrations on campuses across the US.

“We’ve seen what happened when Europe opened their doors to jihad,” he told supporters. “Look at Paris, look at London - they’re no longer recognisable.

“And I’m going get myself into a lot of trouble with the folks in Paris and the folks in London, but you know what, that’s the fact.

“They are no longer recognisable and we can’t let that happen to our country.

“We have incredible culture, tradition - nothing wrong with their culture, their tradition - we can’t let that happen here and I’ll never let it happen to the United States of America.”

His comments came after police in New York and Los Angeles intervened to break up protests at Columbia University and UCLA, where pro-Palestine students had gathered to demonstrate against the war in Gaza.

Dozens of students were arrested in New York on Tuesday night after barricading themselves inside Hamilton Hall, a building at Columbia used for classes.

In Los Angeles, supporters of Israel and Palestine clashed in violent scenes that were eventually shut down by the LAPD.

Mr Trump called on university bosses to take a zero-tolerance attitude to the protesters.

“To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately,” he said.

“Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn.”

Mr Trump has previously claimed the streets of London and Paris are unsafe.

During his 2016 election campaign, he said that “London and other places… are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives” as he defended his own plans for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.

Lord Cameron, who was then prime minister, said Mr Trump’s comments were “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong”.

Boris Johnson, then serving as Mayor of London, said the comments were “ill-informed” and “utter nonsense”.

“The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump,” he said.

Two years later, Mr Trump reportedly told Theresa May, then prime minister, that he thought there were “no-go areas” in London because of Islamic extremism. A source close to Mrs May said at the time that she had disagreed with that comment.

In 2018, after a car crashed into the gates of Parliament, Mr Trump tweeted: “Another terrorist attack in London…These animals are crazy and must be dealt with through toughness and strength!”

His comments came on the eve of the London mayoral elections in which crime has been a major campaign theme of both Labour’s Sadiq Khan and the Conservatives’ Susan Hall.

During Mr Trump’s state visit to London in 2018, Mr Khan gave protesters permission to fly a “blimp” of the Republican president depicted wearing a nappy and crying.

Mr Trump said during the visit that Mr Khan had “done a very bad job on terrorism”.