As student protesters unite across college campuses to stand up against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, former president Donald Trump has condemned their peaceful protest and called the deadly Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally a “peanut” in comparison. In August 2017, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and other right-wing groups descended on the city of Charlottesville to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, with some gathered chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the racists rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring several others. Thus far, the Pro-Palestine protests have not resulted in death or extreme injury.
“Crooked Joe Biden would say, constantly, that he ran because of Charlottesville. Well, if that’s the case, he’s done a really terrible job because Charlottesville is like a ‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country, RIGHT NOW,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday night. The majority of protesters are young college students who are invoking their Constitutional right to protest. These are protests for peace, not for racial superiority or the disdain for Jewish people; these students are morally inclined to stand up for the Palestinian lives that have been lost. 70% of fatalities in Gaza are women and children, the most vulnerable members of society.
Trump’s crude and brainless comments are his latest attempt to minimize the Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally. He was widely condemned in 2017 for declaring there were “very fine people” on both sides of the demonstrations. I do not consider white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists who are dedicated to acts of violence and terror against minority communities as “very fine people.”
To compare a unifying rally for peace to a hateful event that ended in death and terror is utterly ridiculous and makes no sense at all. Charlottesville was a dark moment for many Americans as they realized that not only do white supremacists and neo-Nazis walk among us but hate us with a violent passion. No, the tiki torch-wielding white men who believe that people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and non-Christians are inferior and deserve to have their rights stripped away from them are nothing like the intelligent, empathetic, compassionate students who stand peacefully in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Make no mistake, Donald Trump is a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer who aligns with militant, violent white nationalists over the diverse American people. This sentiment is dangerous, callous, and completely disrespectful.
