Donald Trump: Campus clearances of pro-Gaza 'lunatics' a 'beautiful thing to watch', says former US president

Speaking at his first campaign rally since his criminal trial began, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Mr Trump said college presidents should take a more tough approach to protests over the war in Gaza.

New York police dressed in riot gear stormed a campus at Columbia University and cleared protesters campaigning against the war in Gaza from a building they had occupied. Violence also broke out at the University of California (UCLA), and more than 1,000 student protesters have been arrested across the US.

“To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately,” Mr Trump said at the rally. “Vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”

This comes as students in Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol set up tents outside university buildings on Wednesday in protest against the war in Gaza. In Scotland, protests have been ongoing at the universities on Glasgow and Edinburgh for weeks.

In Edinburgh, student protesters are still occupying a building at the university’s 40 George Square campus after beginning a sit-in earlier this month. The students have claimed the university holds millions of pounds in companies, which fund Israel.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, protesters ended a 15-day occupation at the city’s 11 University Gardens in February after agreeing to talks with university authorities following a stand-off in which protesters were confined to a room without toilet access.

The protests in the US and UK have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding their universities condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.

However, some Jewish students say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into anti-Semitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group's October 7 attack.

Mr Trump also referred to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, in 2017, when one woman was killed and 40 people injured when a man drove his car through a crowd of people opposing the march – calling it “peanuts” compared with the campus protests.

His comments about the protests come in a week when he was held in contempt of court and warned he could be at risk of jail if he continues his behaviour after the judge ruled he had repeatedly violated a gag order by attacking witnesses and jurors on his social media accounts.

Judge Juan Merchan found Trump was guilty of nine violations of the order, which barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case – and fined him $9,000 (£7,100).

At the campaign rally on Wednesday, Mr Trump spoke of the situation to his supporters in Wisconsin and later at another event in Freeland, Michigan. “I have a judge who gags me,” Trump said. “I’m not allowed to talk about things. And nobody’s seen anything quite like it.”