President Trump warned Democrats supporting anti-Israel Columbia University agitator Mahmoud Khalil that “backing” him is not a good look, but perhaps “a step better” than opposing the deportation of migrant criminals.
“The Democrats lost big because of the stupidity of, you know, they’re backing these 90% negative things,” Trump argued during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that aired Wednesday.
The president pointed to Democratic support for transgender issues, which he has previously argued cost them the House, Senate and White House in 2024.
“They’re all for it, and, you know, they’re still fighting for it, but now they have a new one,” Trump said on “The Ingraham Angle.” “We’re going to back murderers, killers and people that hate our country.”
“We’re going to back people that hate Israel — want to destroy it — people that are murderers, people that are horrible. We’re going to back them,” the president continued, seemingly referring to left-wing opposition to his plan to target student visa and green card holders who allegedly support terror groups, such as Hamas, and his crackdown on criminal illegal migrants.
“I think that might be a 100% issue for us,” Trump told Ingraham. “They don’t ever find an issue that’s, like, a good issue.
“Backing Khalil is not a great issue, but backing Khalil is better than backing these other hundreds of people that are really serious criminals,” the president argued.
“It’s probably a step better than that.”
Khalil, whom the White House has accused of distributing “pro-Hamas” flyers during protests last year at Columbia University, is being held at a Louisiana immigration detention facility as he awaits possible deportation.
The 30-year-old permanent US resident claims he is a “political prisoner.”
A federal judge this week blocked Khalil’s deportation from the US after his lawyers fought for his immediate release while the court reviews his petition arguing his March 8 arrest was illegal.
He is set to appear before a judge on March 27.
Trump bemoaned that Khalil’s case won’t be “exactly an easy one” because “some judge, you know, glommed on to him.”
When asked by Ingraham if he fears his policy could be used by Democrats to deport foreign “conservative thinkers” in the United States, Trump responded: “No system is perfect.”
Last week, Vice President JD Vance defended Khalil’s arrest and signaled that “more” deportation efforts would follow.
“This is not fundamentally about free speech, and to me, yes, it’s about national security, but it’s also more importantly about who do we as an American public decide gets to join our national community?” Vance said. “And if the secretary of state and the president decide this person shouldn’t be in America, and they have no legal right to stay here, it’s as simple as that.
“I think we’ll certainly see some people who get deported on student visas if we determine that it’s not in the best interest of the United States to have them in our country,” he continued.
“I don’t know how high that number is going to be, but you’re going to see more people.”
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