Were 30 black student ejected from Donald Trump’s rally?

According to new report about thirty black students were ejected from a rally at their university for US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump at his request, one of the students has told the BBC. 

Mike Sanders, a student at Georgia's Valdosta State University, said police officers told them the Secret Service had said "Trump doesn't want us there".

A spokeswoman for Mr Trump denied that he had requested their removal.

It comes after Mr Trump refused to disavow a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader.

The former leader of the white supremacist KKK, David Duke, had stated his support for Mr Trump.

The billionaire candidate, who is leading the field for the Republican presidential nomination, said at the weekend that he knew nothing about Mr Duke or white supremacists.

He later blamed a faulty earpiece for his comments.

There are different accounts of who made the decision to eject approximately 30 black students who say they were standing silently at the top of the bleachers at Donald Trump’s rally here Monday evening.

Late Monday night, a Trump spokeswoman denied that the incident at Valdosta State University's campus was initiated “at the request of the candidate” or the presidential campaign. A spokesman for the Secret Service contradicted the students' statements that federal agents led them out of the building, saying Trump staff and local law enforcement officials were in charge of handling protesters.

However, Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress tried to clear up the confusion Tuesday morning, saying that he personally went to speak to the Trump campaign staff and the local law enforcement officers helping with security to confirm who ordered the students out, and to ask why.

“These folks were told to leave the PE complex by the Trump detail,” Childress said.

The police chief said he thinks the Trump staff made the right call and it wasn’t a racial issue.

Trump had rented the venue, so “he had the right to tell folks he didn’t want to be there, that they had to leave. I’m not campaigning for anyone. That’s not what I do. But in this case, I support them,” Childress said.

The sight of the students, who were visibly upset, being asked to leave the grounds created a stir at a university that was a whites-only campus until 1963.

The young people said they had planned to sit in silent protest, but were escorted out by security officials before the presidential candidate began speaking. The incident was recorded on video by several attendees.

“We didn’t plan to do anything,” said a tearful Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, who was in the group of Valdosta State University students, many of whom were wearing all black that was removed. “They said, 'This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.' But I paid my tuition to be here.”

Brooke Gladney, a 22-year-old marketing and business management major, said: “The only reason we were given was that Mr. Trump did not want us there."

After this story was published Monday evening, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email: "There is no truth to this whatsoever." She said "the campaign had no knowledge of this incident.”

Trump has been regularly heckled by protesters at his campaign rallies, but tensions have increased after he came under fire on Sunday for not immediately condemning support from a prominent white supremacist.

Earlier Monday, some black students at another Trump campaign rally, on the campus of Radford University in Virginia, were led out by security officers after they began chanting: “No more hate! No more hate! Let's be equal, let's be great!"