Former US President Donald Trump has testified under oath that he feared protesters would pelt him with “very dangerous” fruit such as pineapples, tomatoes, and bananas saying: “You can get killed with those things.”

The comments were revealed in court documents on Tuesday made public which included a transcript of a deposition Trump gave last October as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit in New York.

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The case was brought by several activists of Mexican descent who say they were attacked by his security guards outside Trump Tower in Manhattan in 2015.

“I wanted to have people ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit,” Trump said under questioning by attorney Benjamin Dictor.

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“Tomatoes are bad, by the way” but that “some fruit is a lot worse,” he added.

Dictor asked Trump about comments he made at a rally in Iowa in 2016 when the then-presidential candidate told supporters to “knock the crap” out of anyone about to throw a tomato.

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“That was to the audience. It was said sort of in jest,” Trump responded, before adding: “But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It’s very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things.

Dictor asked Trump whether it was his “expectation that if your security guards see someone about to throw a tomato that they should knock the crap out of them?”

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“Yeah, I think that they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening. Because if that happens, you can be killed if that happens,” Trump answered.

“To stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, yeah, it’s dangerous stuff,” Trump added later.