Former President Donald Trump told donors at a private New York gathering that he would “throw” foreign student pro-Palestinian protesters out of the U.S.
“One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Mr.Trump said, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Donors spoke anonymously to the outlet about the May 14 event that included “98% of my Jewish friends,” Mr. Trump reportedly joked.
He told donors not to fear after they expressed worry about anti-Israel students and professors someday holding positions of power because he would defeat the “radical revolution” that they were a part of.
“Well, if you get me elected, and you should really be doing this, if you get me reelected, we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” he said.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he supports Israel’s right to continue “its war on terror” and praised his administration’s Israel policies.
He didn’t mention Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by name. Mr. Trump has boasted about the good relationship he had with Mr. Netanyahu while he was president, but the two have been on the outs since the prime minister acknowledged President Biden’s win in 2020.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper, “When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, Israel will once again be protected, Iran will go back to being broke, terrorists will be hunted down, and the bloodshed will end.”
Mr. Trump previously was critical of Israel’s war strategy in Gaza.
Last month in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Mr. Trump said Israel should “get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.”
“That’s a very simple statement,” Mr. Trump said. “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”
“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it, because you’ve got to have victory. You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time,” he said.
He said Israel is “absolutely losing the PR war” because of videotapes showing the devastation in Gaza.
“They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it,” he said. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.