US President Donald Trump said he wanted to cut the federal funding of colleges that allow what he called “illegal protests,” in a social media post that civil rights groups called an attack on the freedoms of speech and assembly.

The post on Tuesday appeared to repeat some of the ideas of executive orders he issued during his first term, in 2019, and on January 29, which described the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel student protest movement that swept college campuses last year as antisemitic.

“All federal funding will STOP for any College, School or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote on social media. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to questions about how the White House would define an illegal protest........

© The Times of Israel