Trump France Riots: Urges Border Closure
The Trump France riots response escalated Monday as President Donald Trump urged France to seal its borders after a weekend of unrest that left more than 2,300 people in police custody, blaming migration for the violence that has rocked cities across France.
“The Migrants Have Taken Over France”
“The migrants have taken over France,” Trump wrote Monday morning on Truth Social. “They must CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!”
The message followed a Sunday post in which he wrote: “France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country. Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!”
The demonstrations began in mid-September as student protests over teacher shortages and underfunded schools, then expanded into nationwide union strikes against inflation and the high cost of living. Over the weekend the unrest turned violent in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, and other cities, with masked groups raiding luxury stores and setting fires. The historic town hall in Limoges burned through the weekend, its roof collapsing in what local officials called a catastrophe for heritage. A bust of Marianne was knocked over in Marseille’s City Hall, a tourism office in Lyon was torched, and a statue of Joan of Arc in Paris was vandalized. Commerce officials say some 1,500 shops were damaged or looted nationwide, with repair costs possibly running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Nearly 1,000 security personnel were injured, according to the Interior Ministry.
Macron Orders Curfews as Minister Offers to Quit
French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation Sunday evening, condemning what he called “unrestrained violence” by “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals” — while distinguishing them from protesters with legitimate demands.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez offered his resignation on Sunday, but Macron asked him to stay, citing the need for continued command of law enforcement, and ordered “full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence.” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Monday he had instructed city prefects to impose “very limited” and “localized” curfews, adding that despite scenes of severe violence on Saturday, “no one was killed, and that is a miracle.” In Marseille, the prefect banned all protests or gatherings from noon to 8 p.m. Monday.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said Monday that more than 2,330 people had been taken into custody over the weekend.
Washington and Moscow Read the Same Chaos
Trump’s framing of the unrest as proof of migrant-driven decline was echoed in Moscow, where the Kremlin also cast the weekend’s protests as evidence of a Europe in decay — a rare alignment of Washington and Russian rhetoric, in substance and in tone. European far-right parties have long warned that immigration would be the “scourge” of Western nations, a line Trump’s posts now mirror as MAGA commentators use footage of the French unrest to press the migration case ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Source: The New York Post