Trump says he warned Macron over immigration as nearly 1,000 are arrested at French protests

Right · 1Donald Trump said he had warned French President Emmanuel Macron that his immigration policies were "destroying France", in an interview on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" with Larry Kudlow. 1 Centre · 2The day before, at a Republican campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, Trump said France was "burning down because it opens its borders to people who hate it", and used the example to attack Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff's immigration stance. 2 3 Mixed · 2Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nearly 1,000 people were arrested during demonstrations across France on Saturday and that the figure could rise; a week earlier, 385 had been arrested by the same time. Fox News also cited an Interior Ministry figure of more than 1,300 arrests. 3 4

Mixed · 2The French government put turnout at around 410,000, while organisers estimated nearly 800,000. Most union-organised marches were peaceful, but clashes broke out later in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse, with police using tear gas and water cannons. 3 4 Right · 1French authorities deployed 70,000 police officers nationwide, and Macron vowed that looters and vandals would be made to pay for damage. Fox News reported that Macron said on Thursday his government would move to ban protests organised by "individuals or groups with no legitimate authority" and blamed "ultra-left groups" for riots and looting. 4 1 Mixed · 2The protests began weeks earlier with student complaints about school conditions and teacher shortages, then widened when trade unions and other groups joined over austerity, wages, pensions and the cost of living. Hindustan Times's headline said Trump claimed the protests were not related to education. 3 1

Centre · 1Macron, speaking in Doha on 21 October, said some leaders were "in campaign mode" at France's expense. He said there was no visible foreign interference in the events but there had been foreign manipulation of information afterwards, producing "equally unacceptable and stupid comments from many people, including foreign leaders". Asked if he meant Trump, he replied "Among others, yes." 3 Centre · 1Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also criticised France, telling i24News on 20 October that it had succumbed to an "invasion of extremist Islam", according to the Times of India citing the Times of Israel. 3 Right · 1Asked whether Americans should fear similar unrest, Trump said "I closed the border" and claimed there had been "0 illegal aliens in the last 18 months". Fox News added that the Department of Homeland Security reported a 95% drop in southwest border apprehensions compared with the Biden administration. Fox said it had asked Macron's office for comment and not immediately heard back. 1

Right · 1Fox News said a French intelligence assessment, reportedly cited by a French outlet, identified Antifa and other far-left groups as instigators of some violence. It reported unrest elsewhere in Europe: Italy, where Giorgia Meloni sent 500 more soldiers to Milan; Belgium, with nearly 200 arrests; Spain, with 128 arrests in Barcelona; and Albania. 4