Trump Lays Down the Law with Spoiled Protesters: ‘Agitators Will Be Imprisoned’
Former President Donald Trump has announced a controversial plan to cut federal funding for colleges and universities that permit “illegal protests.” In a recent statement, he emphasized that any educational institution allowing such protests would face funding cuts and suggested severe consequences for protesters, including imprisonment or deportation for non-citizens, and expulsion for American students. Trump’s comments come amid heightened tensions surrounding campus protests, especially those related to pro-Hamas sentiments and anti-Semitic incidents, especially at schools like Columbia University. His management had previously warned institutions receiving federal funds about their obligations to protect Jewish students. The ambiguity surrounding what constitutes an “illegal protest” raises concerns among educational institutions about potential government intervention and funding consequences. Critics argue that university administrations have often failed to adequately address incidents of anti-semitism, while Trump’s threats aim to increase institutional accountability regarding campus protests.
Spoiled campus protesters, look out: President Donald Trump is setting his sights on you and the schools you go to, as well.
In the latest move targeting not one but two favorites of the establishment left — pro-Hamas protesters and college administrative offices — Trump promised to cut off federal funding for “illegal protests” on campuses, adding: “NO MASKS!”
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump said in a message on on Tuesday.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.
“NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.
#BREAKING President Trump posts on :
All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently… pic.twitter.com/TejpRsvvb0
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) March 4, 2025
As Reuters noted, Trump signed an executive order in January which “restored a similar order he signed in 2019, instructing the Department of Education to investigate colleges that receive federal funding if they failed to protect Jewish students and staff from anti-Semitism.”
In February, members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce specifically put Columbia University in New York City — a locus of some of the most ugly, anti-Semitic protests in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel by Hamas — on notice by sending a letter to the university noting that “Columbia has failed to uphold its commitments” to “combat the rampant anti-Semitism on Columbia’s campus.”
“Columbia’s continued failure to address the pervasive anti-Semitism that persists on campus is untenable, particularly given that the university receives billions in federal funding,” the letter noted.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported, federal agencies announced that $51 million in contracts to the university might be cut due to its “ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students.”
According to the AP, a further review of whether the university would lose $5 billion in federal grant money was also underway.
Columbia, for its part, said in a statement, “We are resolute that calling for, promoting, or glorifying violence or terror has no place at our university.”
It’s unclear what an “illegal protest” would entail, although a federal judge ruled last August that the University of California, Los Angeles must act to stop pro-Hamas protesters who were blocking Jewish students’ access to buildings, as Reuters noted at the time.
It’s also unclear how punishment would work or if the federal government would be involved in identifying “agitators.”
The U.K. Guardian noted that “[w]hile protests on campuses have waned in recent months, demonstrations erupted again last week in New York. They came in response to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, ordering the City University of New York (CUNY) to remove a job posting advertising a Palestinian studies professor role at Hunter College, and the expulsion of two students from Barnard College who interrupted a class on Israel last month.”
Of course, this could have all been avoided had sensible steps been taken in the first place: namely, campuses cracking down on hateful, violent protests that went far beyond what’s protected by the First Amendment.
Had these protests maintained the same tenor but instead protested the Palestinian response, they would have been called virulently Islamophobic and led to suspensions and expulsions.
Yet, not only were these protesters coddled and mollified by the administrations of their various schools, there was often solidarity with the rabblement from faculty and administrators.
Watch how quickly that tune changes now that the meat and potatoes of the American university — federal money — is at risk. Columbia, UCLA, and the like are fine with letting Jewish students be offended if it means they get a bit of bad press.
Once you take away that sweet, sweet grant money, however, that’s where they draw the line. Funny how that works.
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