President Trump warned Democrats who support anti-Israel Columbia University agitator Mahmoud Khalil that “sponsoring” him would not look good, but perhaps “a step better” than opposing the deportation of immigrant criminals.
“Democrats have lost a lot because of the stupidity of supporting these 90% negative things,” Trump argued in an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham aired Wednesday.
The president pointed to democratic support for the transgender issue, but he previously claimed he had sacrificed them the House, Senate and the White House in 2024.
“They're all for it, and you know, they're still fighting for it, but now they have something new,” Trump said, “said from Ingraham's angle.” “We're going to support the killers, murderers and people who hate our country.”
“We're going to support those who hate Israel – we want to destroy it – murderers, horrible people. We're going to support them,” the president continued, targeting left-wing opposition to plans to target student visas and green cardholders that support terrorist groups such as Hamas, as well as his crackdown on criminally illegal immigrants.
“I think that might be 100% of the problem for us,” Trump told Ingraham. “They don't find problems like good ones.
“Supporting Halil is not a big deal, but supporting Halil is better than supporting these hundreds of other people who are truly serious criminals,” the president argued.
“It's probably a better step than that.”
Halil, who accused the White House of distributing “Prohama” flyers during a protest at Columbia University last year, is being held at Louisiana immigration detention facility as he awaits potential deportation.
A 30-year-old US resident claims he is a “political prisoner.”
This week, a federal judge blocked Khalil's deportation after his lawyer fought for his immediate release, but the court considered a petition claiming that the March 8 arrest was illegal.
He is scheduled to appear before the judge on March 27th.
Trump lamented that Halil's case was “not exactly easy.”
When asked by Ingraham whether his policies were afraid of using his policies to deport foreign “conservative thinkers” in the United States, Trump replied, “The system is not perfect.”
Last week, Vice President JD Vance defended Khalil's arrest, informing him that “and more” deportation efforts would continue.
“This isn't basically about freedom of speech. For me, yes, it's about national security, but even more important, it's about our participation in the national community as American citizens,” Vance said. “And if the Secretary of State and the President decide that this person should not be in America and that they do not have the legal right to stay here, that is just as easy.
“If we determine that having them in our country is not the best interest of the US, we certainly see people being deported on student visas,” he continued.
“I don't know how high that number will be, but you'll see more people.”
