Trump's comparison of student protests to Jan. 6 is part of effort to downplay Capitol attack

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented the possibility that Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protesters could be treated more leniently than the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, marking the second time in a week the former president has invoked the ongoing campus protests to downplay past examples of right-wing violence.

Speaking in the hallway outside a Manhattan courtroom where his criminal hush money trial is taking place, Trump questioned whether student demonstrators who seized and barricaded a campus building early Tuesday, some of them vandalizing it in the process, would be treated the same way as his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 to stop certification of the presidential results.

“I think I can give you the answer right now,” he said. “And that’s why people have lost faith in our court system.”