While he otherwise exhibits many of the traits of a stand-up comedian, laying into his rivals like an insult comic at a roast, Donald Trump’s inability to tolerate heckling, or even silent protest, has made the spectacle of critics being forcibly removed from his rallies a routine feature of his campaign.

On Monday, though, the preemptive removal of about two dozen black college students from a crowd waiting for the candidate at Valdosta State University in Georgia raised an obvious question: Why, exactly, did a local police force apparently obey orders from the Trump campaign to help screen his audience by removing dissenters?
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In a letter responding to numerous complaints about the suppression of free speech on campus, Cecil P. Staton, the interim president of Valdosta State — which did not admit black students until 1963 — argued that the school had been powerless to prevent the incident since it took place at a private event in a hall rented to the Trump campaign.

“While this is disturbing, it should be remembered that this was not a VSU-sponsored event, but a private function,” Mr. Stanton wrote. “The Trump campaign, together with the Secret Service and other law-enforcement officials, had responsibility for such decisions, not VSU.”

The school’s president added that “current federal law (H.R. 347) does not allow for protesting of any type in an area under protection by the Secret Service.”