Trump Calls French Riots a Mass Migration Disaster, Not a Fight for Better Schools
President Trump rejected the idea that the ongoing riots across France have anything to do with demands for better education. Speaking at a rally, he said the unrest stems from radical elements who entered the country through years of open migration policies and have effectively taken over parts of France.
“They said, oh, it’s all about education. The classrooms are dirty,” Trump said. “Look, has nothing to do with it. Has to do with a bunch of radical vicious lunatics from third world countries that came in and took over France. Had nothing to do with education. That’s all bullshit education.”
The protests began weeks earlier with high school and university students complaining about overcrowded classrooms, staff shortages, and rundown buildings. They quickly expanded into larger marches over the cost of living and drew in unions and other groups. By the weekend of October 24, hundreds of thousands were in the streets. In multiple cities, including Paris and Marseille, the gatherings turned violent after dark, with clashes, fires, and looting. Authorities reported nearly a thousand arrests in the latest round of unrest.
French officials have pointed to far-left activists and opportunistic groups as the source of the violence. Trump framed the broader problem differently, arguing that the chaos reflects the consequences of importing large numbers of people from regions with very different cultural and political traditions who do not assimilate. He has made similar points about European migration policies for years, warning that unchecked inflows erode social cohesion and public order.
Benny Johnson highlighted the comments on X, writing that Trump called the education explanation “all BULLSH*T” and that “mass migration is a country destroyer.” The clip shows Trump dismissing the official story in blunt terms while pointing to the demographic changes that have reshaped parts of France over decades.
France has experienced repeated episodes of urban violence in recent years, often concentrated in neighborhoods with high concentrations of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East. Previous waves of unrest, including the 2005 riots and later incidents tied to police encounters or Islamist grievances, followed similar patterns of rapid escalation once large crowds gathered. The current protests fit that pattern even if they started with narrower complaints about schools.
Trump’s remarks come as several European countries continue to debate whether past migration decisions have made their cities harder to govern. Supporters of tighter controls argue that the scale of inflows has outpaced any realistic capacity for integration, producing parallel societies and elevated rates of crime and disorder.
Critics of that view maintain that economic factors and police tactics explain most of the trouble. Trump sided with the first explanation, treating the education narrative as a distraction from the underlying issue of who has been allowed into the country and in what numbers.