Trump blames immigration for French unrest

Trump said on Sunday that France was burning and blamed immigration, after a weekend of cost-of-living protests turned violent across the country. 

In a Truth Social post, he wrote that the arrival of people from “an entirely different world” had shattered what he called a once great country.

He described them as “people with hatred in their hearts.” “Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!” he added. The post landed as France counted the damage from Saturday’s marches.

Trump’s post and the French protests

Authorities said about 550,000 people marched. Organisers claimed nearer 800,000, and the interior ministry counted 110,000 in Paris alone.

Yellow Vest groups, trade unions, students and farmers all joined in. Marchers complained about prices and about the state of schools.

The main Paris march passed without major trouble. On its edges, however, masked groups lit fires, attacked public buildings and looted shops.

Arrests, injuries and damage

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police had arrested at least 1,800 people during and after the protests. Police in the Paris region alone reported 855 arrests.

More than 500 members of the police, gendarmerie and fire service sustained injuries, Nunez said, though the count was provisional.

A trade federation said roughly 1,500 shops and retailers suffered damage, and looters emptied many of them. Carrefour’s chief said more than 50 of its stores felt the impact, with losses in the millions of euros.

In Limoges, someone deliberately set fire to the 19th-century city hall, and its roof collapsed. Also, one protester in Paris died of a heart attack, police said.

Cobblestones lay loose, shop windows lay smashed and glass covered the ground around the Place de la République in Paris on Sunday morning. Passers-by photographed the broken lower section of a central monument that holds a statue of Marianne, France’s national symbol.

One 57-year-old resident said she was “stunned by the level of destruction.” A 74-year-old man said he had wanted to join the march but met a wall of riot police.

Government reaction to the unrest

Nunez wrote on X that the right to protest is fundamental, but sowing disorder by violence is not. Looters hit hundreds of businesses in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.

President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting of top officials for Sunday afternoon, and he planned to address the nation at 8 p.m. That timing meant Trump’s post landed just hours before the French leader’s speech.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu pointed at the “ultra-left” for the unrest, and opposition figures attacked police tactics. Green politician Marine Tondelier demanded that Nunez resign.

Mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon asked for explanations about police resources and about how officers handled the unrest.

Meanwhile, National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet was considering a parliamentary inquiry and planned to meet group leaders on Tuesday.

A 17-year-old lost a hand after a police grenade hit him in Saint-Etienne, according to reports, which fuelled anger over tactics.

So far, Trump has said nothing more about the unrest, and the French government has not tied the violence to immigration.