A Boston University professor held an individual demonstration at Marsh Plaza Wednesday in response to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post Tuesday threatening the expulsion or imprisonment of university community members who commit “illegal protests.”
Nathan Phillips, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Earth and Environment, stood at the base of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue at Marsh Plaza Wednesday morning holding a cardboard sign adorned with hand-painted capital letters.
“Trump: ‘America’s Hitler’ – JD Vance,” the sign reads.
The sign alludes to a now-deleted April 2022 tweet from Georgia State Senator Josh McLaurin, Vice President JD Vance’s former college roommate, containing 2016 texts from Vance calling Trump “America’s Hitler.”
Phillips said he was “playing it a little bit safe here today” by not using his own words.
“I’m using the Vice President’s words,” Phillips said. “So we’ll see if that is deemed to be illegal speech by the Trump administration, and if they deem it illegal, then I guess they’ll have to send law enforcement over to arrest and incarcerate me, which was the threat that was made yesterday.”
On his denim jacket, Phillips wore an intersex pride flag pin and a name tag reading “The Enemy” over his own University name tag. The standout defied Trump’s recent mandates that Phillips said are “slashing” federal investments in research, and must be “reversed and restored.”
“I don’t call it fear, I call it concern, and I call it outrage,” Phillips said. “It’s not about Republican or Democrat. This is about billionaire oligarchs versus working people.”
Phillips was joined in the afternoon by his friend Alice Arena, a BU alum and former president of Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, an environmental group protesting the construction of a pumping station for natural gas in North Weymouth.
“I’m very disgusted at the administration’s new thing about illegal protests,”Arena said. “What the heck is an illegal protest? That’s number one, and the fact that they’re trying to squash any kind of free speech on campuses.”
Arena brought a sign of her own to stand with Phillips.
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty,” it reads in all-caps.
Students walked by Phillips and Arena snapping photos, and the impact of their demonstration did not go unseen.
“I’ll probably be out here again on other occasions when I’m able to,” Phillips said, “I hope people with privilege to speak out are able to join me.”
