“Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. | AP Photo Trump denounces 'professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters'

President Donald Trump said Friday that protests against him that turn violent “are proving the point” of Americans who came out to support him in last year’s presidential election.

“Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Twitter.


His post to Twitter follows a protest at the University of California at Berkeley that turned violent earlier this week, prompting the cancellation of a speaking event featuring Milo Yiannopoulos, the Breitbart writer known for taking provocative and often misogynistic stances. The university blamed “150 masked agitators” for the violence, which included fires ignited by Molotov cocktails, attacks against police and smashed windows at the student center where Yiannopoulos was to speak.

In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from the university if it “does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view.”

Protests on the day of Trump’s inauguration also turned violent, with demonstrators clashing with police on the streets of Washington. Protesters that day started a fire in the middle of a downtown street and smashed the windows of a Starbucks.