Donald Trump’s presidential campaign released an ad Monday putting university leaders on notice that if he is re-elected his administration will not tolerate anti-Semitism on campuses.
The online ad, which dropped on Holocaust Remembrance Day, included clips from a speech Trump made as president in 2017 condemning anti-Semitism and remarks he made last fall to the Republican Jewish Coalition following the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks.
“We’ve seen anti-Semitism on university campuses, in the public square, and in threats against Jewish citizens. This is my pledge to you, we will confront anti-Semitism. We will stamp out prejudice,” Trump said. “We will condemn hatred. We will bear witness, and we will act.”
“When I get back into office, I will put every single university and college president on notice. The American taxpayer will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers on American soil,” the 45th president promised.
He concluded, “I will defend our friend and ally the state of Israel like nobody has ever defended it before. I will always stand with the Jewish people.”
Joe Biden has still refused to condemn the pro-Hamas mobs occupying college campuses across America.
President Trump took historic action to combat anti-Semitism and stamp out prejudice—and he will always stand with the Jewish people.#HolocaustRemembranceDay pic.twitter.com/woxT0sJHZl
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 6, 2024
Last week as protests were occurring on many campuses around the country from Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles, Trump said at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, “To every college president I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn.”
President Trump calls out college presidents amid nationwide campus protests:
“To every college president I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn.” pic.twitter.com/LEPUTOR2BU
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 1, 2024
Should colleges administrators do more to protect Jewish students?
The beginning of Trump’s ad included news clips that highlight President Joe Biden’s failure to forcefully respond to the protests.
On April 22, Biden repeated a reporter’s question back to her regarding the protests, saying he does condemn “anti-Semitic protests” but added, “I also condemn those that don’t know what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
The White House had released a similar on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand statement the day before.
Last week, Biden addressed the campus protests more directly saying, “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to chaos.”
He noted that destroying property and shutting down campuses is against the law.
The president then employed his practice of saying he’s against anti-Semitism directed toward Jewish students, as well as “Islamophobia” and “discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.”
BIDEN: “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or… pic.twitter.com/I6T8cK0RHc
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 2, 2024
The campus protests have primarily been anti-Israel, anti-Jewish in nature.
Last month, 27 Republican senators — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Katie Britt of Alabama, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Marco Rubio of Florida — sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland urging them to use their authority to “restore order and protect Jewish students” on college campuses.
They noted multiple federal laws have been violated by the protesters, including those against discrimination and espousing support for terrorism.
