The president has blamed Paris’ lax immigration policies for weeks of unrest, invoking the violence to rally Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections
US President Donald Trump has claimed that America could face similar chaos to the violent unrest sweeping France if the Democrats win next month’s midterm elections, accusing left-wing politicians of fueling mass migration and instability across the West.
France has struggled to contain escalating riots that erupted last month over teacher shortages and crumbling facilities. The protests have since grown into a broader movement against inequality and soaring living costs.
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets over the weekend as demonstrations descended into clashes with police, arson, and looting. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested, hundreds of businesses looted, and buildings torched across the country, while around 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Footage drew comparisons to “scenes from a civil war,” with videos also showing some protesters waving Palestinian flags alongside the French tricolor.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Monday, Trump warned that “Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon,” blaming France’s immigration policies for the unrest.
He sharpened his criticism in a Truth Social post, describing France as a “once-great nation” being “conquered, looted, and burned to the ground.” Trump blamed “migrants, jihadists and communists” for the violence, accused European leaders of surrendering their countries to people unwilling to assimilate and urged them to “close their borders” before it is too late.
Trump then turned the unrest into a pitch for Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterms, warning that scenes of “burning steeples and raging fires” were “what the Radical Dumocrats want to do to AMERICA.” He accused Democrats of embracing radical left-wing ideology and cast the election as a fight for America’s “culture,”“civilization” and “heritage.”
“If you want to see what is at stake in this Election, just look at what is happening in France… Globalist Leftwing Politicians have treasonously imported millions of Third World Migrants who are totally incompatible with Western Values, and despise everything that makes France great… they have surrendered their country to vandals,” he wrote.
Trump’s renewed focus on immigration – a cornerstone of his successful 2024 campaign – comes as his approval ratings slide and Republicans face mounting pressure ahead of the midterms. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday put his approval at 31% – down one point from two weeks earlier and the lowest of either presidential term. Democrats led Republicans 47% to 35% among registered voters on a hypothetical congressional ballot.
Trump repeated his Truth Social message at a Kansas rally for Republican Senator Roger Marshall, whose once-safe seat, according to polls, is now facing a competitive challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor campaigning against the president’s “erratic leadership.” Trump won Kansas by 16 points in 2024, and the state has not elected a Democratic senator in 94 years.
❗️ [ 🇺🇸 ÉTATS-UNIS | 🇫🇷 FRANCE ]
🔸 Donald Trump s’en prend violemment à la France, qu’il décrit comme une « grande nation d’autrefois » en train d’être « conquise, pillée et incendiée » par des « migrants, des djihadistes et des communistes » qui, selon lui, « haïssent le…
The rally kicked off a six-day campaign blitz through Republican strongholds, with stops planned in the Carolinas, Florida, Iowa and Georgia, as Trump seeks to boost turnout and defend the party’s narrow congressional majorities. Democrats need to flip four seats in each chamber to overturn Republicans’ 218-214 House majority and 53-47 Senate advantage.
Trump’s bet on Russian diesel
Trump has also sought to shore up Republican support ahead of the midterms by tackling soaring fuel prices, as the Iran war and tariffs squeeze household budgets. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 68% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy, including 37% of Republicans.
To ease the pressure, Trump moved to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, blaming fuel shortages on Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure rather than the Iran war and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The deal with Moscow would release over 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November and one million tons thereafter. Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev told RT the agreement had an immediate “positive effect,” with New York diesel futures falling 5% on the announcement.
The move, however, drew accusations of “betraying Ukraine” from Democrats and some Republicans, who urged Trump to end the Iran war instead. He defended the deal as “the right choice for the American People” and later went further by invoking a national-interest exemption to suspend recently enacted Russia sanctions, including 500% tariffs on Russian imports and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.
