Hundreds of New York Police Department officers, many with batons and in riot gear, cleared Columbia University’s protest encampments on Tuesday evening, including arresting students who occupied a campus building.
Trump claimed in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity during the police operation that many of the protesters did not believe in what they were protesting for.
"I really think you have a lot of paid agitators, professional agitators in here too, and I see it all over," he said. "You know, when you see signs and they’re all identical. That means they’re being paid by a source."
"You know, these aren’t hand-painted signs where people would go to their basement and paint something because they really believed that. These are all signs that are identical that made by the same printer," he continued. "And you know, when you see that that means there’s somebody at the top that’s paying, or a group that’s paying, and they’re doing a great disservice to the world, but they’re doing a great disservice to our country."
There is no evidence that any protester at Columbia University or any of the nationwide pro-Palestine protests are a paid demonstrator or otherwise not an authentic protester.
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Pro-Palestine protest 04/26/2024 White House shuts down GOP calls to bring in National Guard for college protests
Pro-Palestine protest 04/25/2024 Pro-Hamas protests have escalated across college campuses in the United States; at UT at Austin 100s of state troopers immediately descend, make dozens of arrests