US President Donald Trump sensationally criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Wednesday, denying that the top-ranking Democrat is Jewish following his criticism of the Trump administration's arrest and avowed deportation of a pro-Palestinian activist.
"Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. He's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian. Okay?" Trump said at the tail end of a sprawling tirade against Democrats.
Schumer is Jewish.
He did not specify the reason why he made the comments during a screed that lambasted Democratic opposition to his policy priorities, but they come after Schumer criticized the administration's efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who helped organize campus protests at New York City's Columbia University last year.
"I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports, and have made my criticism of the antisemitic actions at Columbia loudly known," Schumer said in a statement posted to X, though he maintained that the Trump administration "must articulate any criminal charges or facts that would justify his detention or the initiation of deportation proceedings against him."
"If the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong, they are violating the First Amendment protections we all enjoy and should drop their wrongheaded action," he added, referring to the US Constitution's section on freedom of speech.
Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestinian encampment last April, was arrested at his university-owned residence in New York on Saturday, and transferred to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil's attorneys planned to file a petition Wednesday for his release from the facility.
Amy Greer, his attorney, said Khalil was "wrongfully arrested" by Immgration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who claimed his student visa was revoked-even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the US on a student visa. He is also married to a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Fourteen members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, signed a letter Tuesday demanding Khalil's release, criticizing his detention as an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech."
