Donald Trump reportedly orders Secret Service to remove 30 silent black students from rally

Donald Trump speaks at Vadosa State University in Georgia

(Image credit: Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

Before he took the stage at a campaign event at Georgia's Valdosta State University on Monday afternoon, Donald Trump ordered his Secret Service detail to remove about 30 black students standing quietly on bleachers in the back of the gym, Secret Service agents told USA Today. The students, some of whom were crying or visibly upset after they were escorted outside, said they had no plans to protest Trump. "We didn’t plan to do anything," student Tahjila Davis, 19, told USA Today. "They said, 'This is Trump's property; it's a private event.' But I paid my tuition to be here."

Earlier Monday, Secret Service agents had escorted some Black Lives Matter protesters from a Trump rally in Radford, Virginia — and some kind of Trump security agent choked and threw a Time photographer to the ground as he took pictures. Late Monday, the Trump campaign denied that the Valdosta students were thrown out "at the request of the candidate," according to a statement from campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. "There is no truth to this whatsoever." Davis, the student, said that she didn't "understand why they would do something like that.... I have not experienced any racism on this campus until now."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.