France orders curfews after fuel protests turn violent, drawing rebuke from Trump
Parts of Paris and other French cities were placed under overnight curfews on Monday after nationwide protests on Saturday over rising fuel prices and falling purchasing power escalated into clashes with police. A historic town hall was torched and 1,800 people were arrested, according to The Guardian.
The unrest followed weeks of marches by high school students over teacher shortages, crumbling classrooms and an opaque university admissions system. France's CGT union has backed the wider movement, calling for lower prices, higher pensions and better wages.
U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday that "France is burning!" and blamed "the immigration of people from an entirely different world" for violence and looting. He urged Paris to "Close your Borders and take control." He wrote "The migrants have taken over France" when blaming immigration for the riots, according to The Hill.
Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that "Western liberals imported the third world into France" and that France had "ignored fundamental questions about assimilation and compatibility". The official White House X account posted: "If you import the third world, you become the third world."
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said he had warned French President Emmanuel Macron he was "making a big mistake". He said "The whole world was coming in, and as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn't the deal" and added "We closed our borders. He didn't."
Vance reposted a video of the fire in Limoges showing the structure's spire crashing to the ground as flames consumed the building, according to USA Today. Trump said immigration had "shattered" France after protesters and looters ransacked shops in Paris, according to The Telegraph.
National Rally 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.
