On the Line (2022)

Former President Donald Trump spent his day off from his ongoing criminal trial by floating a conspiracy theory about pro-Palestinian protests taking place on campuses across the country.

Students have been protesting Israel's war in Gaza in demonstrations that have led to police crackdowns and mass arrests, but the former president claimed Tuesday night on Fox News that "paid agitators" were spurring the movement, and the following morning he suggested the Biden administration might be involved.

“Do you think that the Radical Left Lunatics that are causing all of the CHAOS at our Colleges and Universities are doing so in order to take the FOCUS away from our Southern Border, where millions of people, many from prisons and mental institutions, are pouring into our Country?” Trump posted Wednesday morning on Truth Social. “Just askin’…???”

The protesters have expressed their anger at President Joe Biden for siding with Israel and refusing to pressure its government into negotiating an end to the war, and the president has warned the demonstrators not to engage in antisemitic "hate speech" and to remain "peaceful and lawful."

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“Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful, it is wrong, and hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America," Biden said.

Trump has characterized the campus protests as worse than the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying that event that claimed the life of civil rights activist Heather Heyer was "like a peanut" compared to the recent demonstrations in support of Palestinians.

The former president will use his scheduled day off from his hush money trial in Manhattan to campaign for re-election in Michigan and Wisconsin, and he took a potshot against Biden before apparently logging off his social media website.

“Where’s SLEEPY JOE?" posted Trump, who has repeatedly dozed off during his trial. "He’s SLEEPING, that’s where!!!”

The appeals court has denied Donald Trump's request to have Justice Juan Merchan recused from the Manhattan hush money trial, Law360's Stewart Bishop reported Tuesday morning.

Trump has also demanded that the trial be paused because he is awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on his "presidential immunity" claims. That too was denied.

Trump faces 34 felony counts in Manhattan surrounding a so-called hush money agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say he paid her to keep quiet about a sexual relationship they had before the 2016 election.

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Trump claimed Merchan was biased against him because the judge's daughter works for Democratic campaigns.

Merchan asked a judicial ethics board to examine the issue last year, and it was ruled that everything was above board. Still, Trump appealed his refusal of recuse.