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| A post from Donald Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social. |
NOTE: I have added additional information I learned on March 5 and 6th after my initial opinion.
ORIGINAL:
In the screen shot above, Trump is talking about the Save Palestine protests that have occurred in cities and college campuses. He has worked hard through executive orders to label these as anti-semitic protests. He considers them "Pro-Hamas" in the order and the accompanying fact sheet.
He created a task force, consisting of heads of various departments, to come up with a plan for "fighting anti-semitism." These departments will make a database of all civil and criminal laws that they can apply to anyone deemed "anti-semitic" by Trump's definition. It will serve as their toolkit to target and persecute protestors. This assignment is due on or around March 30.Under these orders, all Save Palestine protests are considered the same, even if the vast majority of them are peaceful, uneventful and even boring. They're considered "pro-Jihad." That is not my term, but Trump's term.
As of now, although Trump has labeled ALL the protests "anti-semitic," "pro-Hamas," and "pro-Jihad," he has not called for criminal prosecution of peaceful protestors specifically. However, the orders make no distinction between peaceful and violent protestors. All the protests are considered to be anti-semitic, pro-Hamas and pro-Jihad. In short, they are considered terrorists, in a round-about way, comprehensible if you have the reading comprehension of, say, a 5th grader. In short, he'd prefer that his Justice Department consider any and all of these protests to be illegal. And when he calls them "illegal" on social media, he's talking about all of them, and this is supported by plenty of his posts on Truth Social and other public statements.
I think Trump knows he has quite a way to go before he can just come out and say all the quiet things out loud. But all the quiet things are already in the orders and press releases. I believe we're at the point where he's seeing what can stick, and he'll move forward with what sticks. And what doesn't stick, he and his MAGA people have the plausible deniability and gaslighting in their favor—"well, I never said those words in exactly that order, really, and therefore that's not what I meant."
On March 3, the Department of Human Services announced that it would be suspending all Federal Funding to Columbia University, because the university has allowed anti-Semitism on its campus. This would shut down the university for good.
The anti-semitism referenced by HHS was an op-ed written by a student, calling for Columbia University to divest itself from contracts with the country of Israel, and Save Palestine protests that have taken place on campus.
Students have been interrogated by university officials and forced to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding their interrogations. Students and faculty who have spoken with the press have reported they were compelled to implicate others. This has resulted in innocent people who were not at the protests being accused and interrogated.
My original opinion, it turns out, was correct.
EDIT 2, March 7:
Today, the Department of Justice announced that all Federal Funding, $400 million, would be cut from Columbia University, for not doing enough to fight the anti-Semitism on campus.
EDIT 3, March 8: My full thoughts:
Here's the drama that played out at Columbia University over the last months:
1. After Trump won, Columbia University changed the rules about what constituted unacceptable activities, to target the Save Palestine protests. This not only targeted the protesters who allegedly harassed Jewish students, but ALL protesters—even the kids who showed up for an hour with a "Save Gaza" sign and did nothing else. ALL of them. If a FEW students got out of line, then ALL of them did. That's the philosophy. Sound familiar?
2. Trump took office and began in earnest to threaten universities, stating that ALL Save Palestine protesters were anti-Semites, pro-Hamas, and pro-Jihad. In short, if a student disliked the relentless bombing of Gaza and spoke out about it, THAT student is automatically all of those things. This leaves universities in an impossible situation, where they are forced to prohibit free speech or effectively get shut down. This also rhymes with other infamous historical events.
3. The University began interrogating students accused of protesting. During interrogations, students and faculty were required to name names. So, under pressure they did. This resulted in numerous people being implicated who were NOT protestors; They just happened to be people that someone thought of when interrogators were doing shakedowns. This too should sound familiar.
4. Despite these dark-side efforts by Columbia University, the Department of Justice yesterday announced that ALL departments were withdrawing ALL Federal Funding from the school to the tune of $400 million. There really was nothing Columbia could have done. They did the evil things that a malevolent dictatorship would require, and STILL got the threatened penalties.
That's the Administration's template. At best, these tactics will remain confined to students and faculty at universities. At best.
MARCH 24: Columbia University conceded to the rest of Trump's demands. They will hire 36 more security officials to arrest protesters if necessary and they will ban the use of masks to conceal protester identity. There are also other changes they will make, all of which strike at first amendment protections, and are designed to scare students into submission.
At this time it is unclear whether the Department of Education will allow federal funding again after these changes.
Office of Public Affairs | DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancelation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million | United States Department of Justice
Facing Trump's threats, Columbia investigates students critical of Israel
HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Additional Measures to End Anti-Semitic Harassment on College Campuses | HHS.gov
Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Forceful and Unprecedented Steps to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House
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