Police arrested practically 100 demonstrators Thursday who stormed Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan demanding the discharge of Columbia College activist Mahmoud Khalil.
The noisy crowd of about 150 individuals occupied the constructing’s foyer, chanting slogans comparable to “free Mahmoud, free all of them,” and displaying indicators together with “Combat Nazis Not College students” earlier than police broke up the rally and arrested 98 protesters.
“I’m very proud to say there have been no incidents in anyway,” NYPD Chief of Division John Chell advised New York Fox affiliate WNYW-5. “We did it safely, calmly, and we achieved what we needed to do with our Secret Service companions and Trump safety.”
The protest organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace got here in response to the Saturday arrest of Mr. Khalil, 31, who helped lead final yr’s chaotic anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia College as a graduate scholar.
A federal decide positioned a short lived maintain Monday on the Homeland Safety Division’s effort to deport Mr. Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian who resides within the nation as a authorized resident on a inexperienced card.
He’s presently being held at an immigration detention heart in Louisiana.
“We is not going to stand by as this fascist regime makes an attempt to criminalize Palestinians and all these calling for an finish to the Israeli authorities’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian individuals,” mentioned Jewish Voice for Peace in an announcement. “We’ll by no means cease preventing for a free Palestine.”
President Trump and his household have a residence within the tower, which additionally incorporates the golden escalator down which Mr. Trump descended to announce his 2016 presidential run. His 18-year-old son Barron Trump lives there whereas attending New York College.
“My understanding is that when Barron is there at school, he’s staying at Trump Tower,” Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, advised Fox Information Channel host Will Cain. “I’m undecided whether or not or not he was really there as we speak or not.”
She condemned the protesters for concentrating on the combined residential-and-commercial property, saying that the demonstration was “in all probability very scary to lots of people who stay there, who work there.”
 BREAKING: Unhinged pro-Hamas mobs storm Trump Tower in NYC!
The left is shedding their minds over a terrorist sympathizer—whereas staying lifeless silent on harmless hostages nonetheless held by Hamas.
Their priorities?
DEFEND terrorists.
IGNORE their victims. pic.twitter.com/ImZJONdw9y
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) March 13, 2025
Many of the protesters are anticipated to face trespassing fees, with some possible charged with resisting arrest.
Mrs. Trump famous that the protest seemed prefer it had some cash behind it. Many of the activists wore matching crimson T-shirts, and the banners they carried have been professionally printed, not home-made.
“It looks like the identical individuals who have been funding all of the chaos on campuses which have been terrifying to Jewish college students, which have prevented individuals from going and studying, are in all probability the identical individuals funding this,” mentioned Mrs. Trump, who hosts the weekend present “My View with Lara Trump” on Fox.
From 2019-21, Jewish Voice for Peace obtained donations from teams together with the Kaphan Basis, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Quitiplas Basis, the Matthew G. Krane Basis, and the Open Society Coverage Heart, in line with NGO Monitor.
Democrats have denounced Mr. Khalil’s arrest as an assault on freedom of expression, whereas Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that the case is “not about free speech,” noting that non-citizens could also be denied entry or have their everlasting residence revoked for expressing help for designated terrorist teams like Hamas.
“The man in query doesn’t have a proper,” Mrs. Trump mentioned. “It’s a privilege to have a inexperienced card and a visa in america of America. I believe [the protesters] are going to be very upset with the end result.”
