US President Donald Trump gestures while walking across the South Lawn as he returns to the White House after traveling to Kansas, in Washington, DC, US, Oct 20, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Published : 20 Oct 2026, 01:07 PM
Updated : 20 Oct 2026, 01:07 PM
US President Donald Trump has blamed immigration for the protests and street violence gripping France, warning that Paris would “be a Muslim city very soon” and urging French President Emmanuel Macron to shut the country’s borders.
“What’s happening in France has to do with immigration, not schools, not anything,” Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday, NDTV reported. “It’s immigration, and I told President Emmanuel Macron, close up your borders.”
The remarks came as weekend demonstrations over soaring living costs in Paris and other French cities descended into some of the worst street violence the country has seen in years.
Trump said he had previously warned Macron that France was making “a big mistake” by allowing unrestricted immigration. “The whole world was coming in,” he said.
“Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon,” Trump added, according to NDTV.
The 80-year-old president also issued a broader warning to the continent, saying Europe was “finished” unless it closed its borders and removed what he called “the criminals” behind the protests.
Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration a central plank of his 2024 presidential campaign, at times using claims that rights advocates have criticised as racially charged.