Donald Trump reacted with praise Tuesday night after officers in the New York Police Department were spotted entering a Columbia University building through a second story window, with the former president gushing about “the way they walked in” and how “they were not afraid of anything.”
Police used an elevated bridge to access Hamilton Hall, where pro-Palestinian student protesters had broken into and occupied in the early hours Tuesday. In a statement, the university said it had allowed law enforcement to enter the building to “restore safety and order to our community.”
Calling in to Fox News as the drama unfolded, Trump had plenty of nice things to say to Sean Hannity about the police force.
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“I think New York City’s finest have been incredible the way they’ve been—it’s not over yet—but the way they walked in and the way they climbed through that window. They were not afraid of anything,” Trump speculated, “and it looks like they’ve got it maybe clamped down.”
Earlier in the interview, Trump claimed—with scant evidence—that there were “a lot of paid agitators” among the protesters.
“I really think you have a lot of paid agitators, professional agitators in here too, and I see it all over. And you know, when you see signs and they’re all identical, that means they’re being paid by a source,” Trump said.
“These aren’t hand-painted signs where people would go to their basement and paint something because they really believed it. These are all signs that are identical. They’re made by the same printer,” Trump insisted. It wasn’t immediately clear which signs he was referencing.
“When you see that, that means there’s somebody at the top that’s paying or a group that’s paying.”
