College campuses are not safe places for members of the Republican group Students for Trump.
Campuses have recently become contentious places for those who value free speech. Those who support the presumptive Republican nominee are facing increasing threats and violence.
“We’ve had tons of students email us and say that they’ve been cursed at in the middle of their campus, they’ve been assaulted, that they’ve had their property vandalized, windows broken into if they have Trump signs in their front yard if they’re a fraternity house or sorority house, cars vandalized if they have stickers,” John Lambert said. Lambert is the 20-year-old national vice chairman of Students for Trump. “They’ve had their cars keyed, they’ve had their windows broken. It’s kind of bad.”
Campuses are especially toxic when it comes to dissenting opinions among students.
“People are saying, ‘Gosh, we’d love to wear Trump merchandise, and we’d love to show our support when we’re going to the grocery store or going to college games or anything,’ but they feel unsafe doing so,” Lambert said, who is a student at Campbell University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Lambert and Chairman Ryan Fournier founded the group last October in an attempt to motivate people to vote for Trump through social media.
There are about 280 chapters across the United States and the organization has more than 5,000 campaign volunteers. However, Trump’s tendency toward inflammatory rhetoric and ideas leads to extreme opposition, usually directed at his supporters. Lambert said that some people “react violently” to seeing support for Trump.
The group expects to see an increasing amount of opposition as the election continues. “It’s kind of hilarious that that should exist in our country … but sadly that’s the way this election is going,” Lambert said. “And I’m here to say that I think it’s going to get even worse, unfortunately, as we get closer to November.”
