Trump blames immigrants for French protests, urges France to close its borders

US President Donald Trump urged France to close its borders in a post on Truth Social on 18 October (local US time). "France is burning," he wrote. "Immigrants from a totally different world, with hatred in their hearts, have torn that once-great country apart." He added: "Close the borders and take back control before it is too late." Yonhap, Chosun Ilbo and Hankook Ilbo said he named immigration as the cause of the violent anti-government protests in France. [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 6 ]

Several outlets said it was not the first time Trump had linked the French unrest to immigration. On 6 October he wrote on Truth Social that the protests were about "uncontrolled mass immigration" and the problem of Islam trying to take over a once-great country. Yonhap and Chosun Ilbo said that on 18 October he again blamed the French government's lenient border and immigration policy. Vance shared a video of the Limoges city hall fire on X the day before, according to Yonhap, Kukmin Ilbo and others. He criticised Europe's tolerant immigration policy and wrote that he prays France stops "this madness before more landmarks burn." [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 ]

The outlets described the protests in France as a movement that began with high school students protesting poor educational conditions and has run for four weeks. On the weekend of 17 October, workers and citizens protesting high prices and fuel costs joined in, and Hankook Ilbo said the protests had spread nationwide. Protesters and police clashed violently in Paris and other major cities, and vehicles and shops were burned and looted. In the south-western city of Limoges, the city hall was attacked by protesters, caught fire and collapsed. [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]

Korea Economic Daily reported that Trump repeated the argument at the White House on 19 October, telling reporters, "This is not a school issue, it's an immigration issue." The paper quoted him saying he had earlier warned French President Emmanuel Macron to close the borders and that "they ruined the country." It also reported that Trump said he had given the same advice to Russian President Vladimir Putin and other European leaders. Newsis and Kyunghyang Shinmun said that Trump also brought France into the US midterm campaign. At a rally in Kansas that evening, Kyunghyang reported, he said anyone wanting to know what matters in this election should look at France. [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]

Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that Le Monde said US and Russian reactions had rarely been so similar, and that Kirill Dmitriev, described as a close aide of Putin, said immigration-driven chaos was bringing about the suicide of Western civilisation. It said Marine Le Pen of the National Rally also blamed left-wing forces and decades of immigration. Francois Heisbourg, an adviser at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, called Trump's remarks interference in domestic affairs. Experts quoted by the paper warned against blaming immigrants, and researcher Sebastien Roche told the Washington Post the French far left was too small to lead violence on this scale and cited police overreaction. [ 11 ]