Former United States President Donald Trump has claimed that pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses are more hateful than the infamous 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Speaking to reporters outside his hush-money trial in New York on Thursday, Trump said the Unite the Right rally was “nothing” compared with the hate being expressed at student demonstrations against the war in Gaza.“We’re having protests all over,” Trump said as he left the Manhattan courtroom where he is standing trial over alleged payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

“Charlottesville was a little peanut, and it was nothing compared – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here, this is tremendous hate,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments follow a Truth Social post on Wednesday in which the Republican presidential contender described the Charlottesville rally as a “‘peanut’ compared to the riots and anti-Israel protests that are happening all over our Country.”

The White House rebuked Trump over his comments.

“Minimising the anti-Semitic and white supremacist poison displayed in Charlottesville is repugnant and divisive,” deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement