Donald Trump on Thursday criticised the mostly peaceful protests on US college campuses over Israel’s offenisve in Gaza, describing them as “tremendous hate,” while saying that the violence at a white nationalist rally in Virginia when he was president was by comparison “a little peanut”, Reuters reports.

In remarks to media following the day’s testimony in his criminal trial in New York City, Trump referenced the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 between white nationalists and counter-protesters, in which one woman was killed, and claimed the current college protests over Israel were far worse.

“Charlottesville was a little peanut. And it was nothing compared to – and the hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here,” Trump said, repeating an assertion he made on his social media platform on Wednesday.

The protests by students opposed to Israel’s offensive in Gaza have escalated at universities across the United States in recent days, although they have been largely peaceful, with no known deaths and none of violent clashes between demonstrators seen in Charlottesville.