Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on college presidents to remove anti-Israel protest encampments immediately from their campuses.
Trump’s challenge to university leaders came at a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as protests at the University of Wisconsin’s Madison and Milwaukee campuses persist for what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes is a third consecutive day.
“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,” he said to thunderous applause.
Trump also slammed President Joe Biden for a lack of leadership amid the widespread protests, days after Biden condemned “antisemitic protests” but also condemned “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”
Despite this comment, which brought criticism Biden’s way, Trump said, “Biden is nowhere to be found.”
“He’s the president; when you have a problem like that, you should go out and talk about it and talk to the people, but there’s a big problem. There’s a big fever in our country,” Trump said.
Trump said even if Biden tried to address the issue, “it wouldn’t matter; in fact, I think it would actually make it worse.”
At a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre claimed Biden “is monitoring the situation” when asked why he has not been more vocal on the matter.
The reporter asked:
Has the president been monitoring this, and why have we not heard directly from the president about these protests [inaudible] institutions of higher learning across this country, the police responses, instances of violence – why haven’t we heard from the president?
“The president is being kept regularly updated on what’s happenning, as you just stated, across the country. He is monitoring the situation very closely; so is his team,” she said.
She further claimed “no president has spoken more forcefully about combatting antisemitism than” Biden.