President Donald Trump threatened university students Tuesday in a Truth Social post attacking institutions of higher education, First Amendment rights and immigrants.

In the past several weeks, the Trump Administration has targeted federal departments, federal funding and educational institutions across the nation. Trump’s recent attack indicates he is shifting or expanding his focus to university students.

In his post, the president threatens student protesters participating in “illegal protests” with jail time and deportation.

“All federal funding will stop for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests,” Trump said. “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.”

The president also made the point to attack masked protesters who feel the need to protect their identities.

“NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said.

The right to protest is a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment. While it is true that not all forms of speech or assembly are constitutionally protected, such as terroristic threats or an organized attack on the Capitol, the president’s vagueness of what constitutes an “illegal protest” may invite further violence and chaos.

Peaceful protests are protected forms of speech and assembly. The Supreme Court has continuously upheld the right of students to engage in such activity.

In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of students suspended for anti-war speech. The Court’s precedent in Tinker established the Tinker Test, which clarifies protections for student First Amendment activities in public schools as long as the activity does not become a “substantial disruption.”

Despite Trump’s threats of arrests and detainment, WSU students remain firm in their resolve to exercise their right to peacefully assemble.

“I definitely advised people to have masks,” said Connor Luce, a second-year mechanical engineering student and former student organizer for Youth Democratic Socialists of America. “We worried that there would be individual acts against people for showing their support.”

Many students across the country have faced unjust retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights, Luce said.

“There’s definitely some universities where students were expelled,” Luce said. “They had a bunch of student organizers who, despite promises from the university that they wouldn’t be expelled, or they wouldn’t have any punitive actions against them, they still got suspended from the university and weren’t able to attend their classes.”

Luce said many organizers have been very open and supportive of peace but have still faced retaliation.

“At least here, all the organizers of the protests have been very open about who they are and what their affiliations are,” he said. “The university will say they’re apolitical or say that they don’t have an agenda in that way, but they’ll still have massive repression of students.”

Student protests should be peaceful, and most of them are, Luce said.

“If you’re on college campuses, for example, you’ll see that it’s very peaceful, and that a good thing,” he said.

Luce said he disagrees with the narrative that most of the protests happening on university campuses have been violent.

“Nothing that students have done, at least in the area here, has been illegal,” he said. “It’s all been on public land. It’s all been very peaceful.”

Much of the violence seen has actually come from counter-protesters, Luce said.

“The violent actions in most of these have been from counter-protesters,” he said. “If you look at UCLA, they had frats come in and throw firebombs and literally assault people at these encampments.”

Luce said students should get involved and shouldn’t have to be afraid to speak their minds.

“Get involved with whatever organizations are currently doing actions, whatever organizations are willing to speak their mind on this issue and issues in the future,” he said. “Make your voice heard and don’t be silent about it.”

Civic apathy is an issue in the United States and remaining silent only worsens the issue, Luce said.

“There’s a lot of people that just don’t know anything about the issue and will go with whatever the current public narrative is,” he said. “A lot of that is playing into the rise of fascism, increasing authoritarianism and degrading human rights in this country.”

Students interested in getting involved have opportunities to do so.

Members of UAW 4591, WSU’s academic student employee union, are organizing a protest called Stand Up For Science 2025. The protest is planned for 12 p.m. Friday, March 7, outside the Compton Union Building.

“The Pullman science community is organizing a march that will start at the Compton Union Building and will proceed to the French Admin Building,” Stand Up For Science Pullman said in an Instagram post.

The march is aiming to protest the Trump Administration’s targeting of higher education and research institutions.

“Science is actively being attacked by the Trump Administration, and we need to stand against these changes in legislation,” Stand Up For Science said in a later post. “There has been a massive firing of federal workers, threats to cut research funding, censorship of DEI research and freezes to government research at the National Institutes of Health.”