{"id":808110,"date":"2026-10-20T01:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T01:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808110\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T01:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T01:16:13","slug":"trump-borrows-from-far-right-to-blame-unrest-in-france-on-immigration-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808110\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump borrows from far right to blame unrest in France on immigration | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Donald Trump and JD Vance deployed a familiar US playbook on Europe, claiming that immigrants were responsible for rioting in France that began as student protests against crumbling schools and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/oct\/19\/the-guardian-view-on-frances-protests-a-polarised-country-is-in-a-perilous-political-moment\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">high cost of living<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The nationwide protests on Saturday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/02\/student-protests-shut-schools-across-france\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">were called over<\/a> rising fuel prices and falling purchasing power, and in several cities they escalated into clashes with police that left a historic town hall torched and led to 1,800 arrests. On Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/19\/french-police-lost-control-during-riots-concedes-interior-minister\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">overnight curfews were issued<\/a> for a number of French cities, including parts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/paris\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paris<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cFrance is burning!\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, blaming \u201cthe immigration of people from an entirely different world\u201d for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/19\/looting-french-cities-continues-second-night\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">violence and looting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">He urged Paris to \u201cClose your Borders and take control\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Vance, a day earlier, argued that the unrest was the result of what he called a liberal failure. \u201cWestern liberals imported the third world into France,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JDVance\/status\/2111628668044759453\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> on X, adding that the country had \u201cignored fundamental questions about assimilation and compatibility\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The rhetoric echoes France\u2019s far-right <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/national-rally\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Rally<\/a>, whose president, Jordan Bardella, described the violence as a convergence of ultra-left extremism and delinquent populations from the suburbs. Trump and Vance have both publicly backed Marine Le Pen, and the unrest has added pressure on Emmanuel Macron six months before an April election to choose his successor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The demonstrations in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/france\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France<\/a> began weeks ago, when high school students began marching for teacher shortages, crumbling classrooms and an opaque university admissions system. The CGT, one of France\u2019s largest unions, has backed the movement and called for lower prices, higher pensions and better wages. The anger has since widened to fuel prices, which have climbed since US strikes effectively shut the strait of Hormuz, and other economic grievances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">As Trump set off for a campaign rally in Kansas on Monday, the US president told reporters at the White House that he had warned Macron he was \u201cmaking a big mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe whole world was coming in, and as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn\u2019t the deal,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cWe closed our borders. He didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Not all protests have drawn the same attention from Washington, as young people have taken to the streets across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/europe-news\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Europe<\/a>, in Spain, Portugal and Italy, over underfunded schools, housing costs and a wider squeeze on living standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Neither have the US president and vice-president commented on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/19\/albania-accused-of-rushing-through-trump-linked-resort-in-formerly-protected-landscape\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protests in Albania<\/a>, where demonstrators have targeted both the government and a luxury tourism development backed by an investment firm founded by Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Before Trump arrived on stage in Park City, Kansas, giant TV screens played about 10 minutes\u2019 of Fox News coverage of the unrest that has gripped Paris and other cities, which included commentary blaming the trouble on the French government\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Earlier in the day, the official White House X account posted: \u201cIf you import the third world, you become the third world.\u201d An array of Republican politicians have lined up to make a similar argument, seeking to leverage the unrest in France against Congressional Democrats ahead of the 3 November midterms, in which their party faces significant headwinds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">House Speaker Mike Johnson posted: \u201cFrance is descending into chaos because they wanted OPEN BORDERS \u2014 just like the socialist Democrats in America. What we are witnessing is a chilling warning for all Americans of what happens if the radical Marxist insurgent left gets their way.\u201d Senator Eric Schmitt added: \u201cThe anti-civilization Left is devouring France. It will devour America if we let it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The vice president said he hoped Americans were paying attention as they cast their ballots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">David Smith contributed reporting from Park City, Kansas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump and JD Vance deployed a familiar US playbook on Europe, claiming that immigrants were responsible for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-808110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}