“Immigration and Islam”: Trump’s First Comments on French Protests

U.S. President Donald Trump commented Tuesday on the student protests taking place in France, criticizing what he described as “uncontrolled mass immigration.”

In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump stated: “What is happening in France is nothing short of uncontrolled mass immigration,” adding: “It’s not about schools; it’s about Islam wanting to take over a once-great nation.”

France experienced a widespread day of student protests on Tuesday, marked by clashes between police and demonstrators in several cities. Security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters blockading high schools amid rising anger over deteriorating educational conditions, teacher shortages, and a lack of resources.

The protests began in September in Paris’s impoverished suburbs before spreading nationwide, drawing participation from students, teachers, and parents.

While demonstrations in Marseille and Nantes remained largely peaceful, clashes erupted in Strasbourg, Lyon, and Rennes, where protesters set fires in the streets and threw projectiles at police.

The high school student union stated that approximately 1,800 schools were closed or blockaded. Protesters are demanding increased spending on education, the renovation of dilapidated schools, the hiring of more teachers, and better learning conditions.

The government responded by deploying riot police, while the Ministry of the Interior announced the arrest of nearly 6,100 people since the protests began—most of them minors. Over 1,800 individuals face prosecution, including 1,483 minors.

The office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu reported that 715 police officers and 215 teenagers were injured during the clashes.

Criticism of the authorities intensified after a 15-year-old teenager was severely injured, losing his hand and part of his forearm during clashes with police in northern France after picking up a crowd-control grenade, according to the newspaper La Voix du Nord.

Lecornu pledged to address the students’ demands, including replacing absent teachers, reviewing the length of the school day, extending lunch breaks, and assessing renovation needs for aging schools, instructing his ministers to submit preliminary proposals by the end of October.