President Donald Trump weighed into France’s escalating school unrest Tuesday, blaming mass migration and Islam as thousands of arrests, more than 1,000 injuries and widespread school closures deepen one of the country’s most serious protest crises in decades.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed mass migration and Islam for the violent unrest spreading across France, offering a stark interpretation of protests that began over deteriorating school conditions but have since produced arson, attacks on teachers and emergency workers, thousands of arrests and nationwide clashes with police.
“What’s happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration. This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country! President DJT,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump’s comments came as French authorities faced the largest coordinated day of demonstrations since the school protest movement began in September.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described the unrest Tuesday as the most violent school protests France has experienced in decades. At least 215 teenagers and 85 school employees have been injured since the demonstrations began, while more than 700 police officers have also been hurt, according to the government.
The French Interior Ministry said 6,100 people had been arrested as of Tuesday, the overwhelming majority of them minors. More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors.
Hundreds of schools have closed or shifted instruction as the movement spread. Roughly 400 high schools were closed on Oct. 2, and by Tuesday the High School Students Union said more than half of the country’s approximately 3,700 high schools were either blockaded or expected to close for the day. BBC programming also reported that more than 500 schools were closed Tuesday. Earlier reporting tracked the mounting casualties and closures as the unrest expanded.
The protests initially emerged in deprived suburbs around Paris, where students complained about overcrowded classrooms, shortages of teachers and substitute teachers, deteriorating buildings, water leaks, rat infestations and other longstanding problems.
They quickly spread across the country and became considerably more violent.
Police fired tear gas Tuesday in Strasbourg, Lyon, Rennes and Paris as protesters burned objects in streets and threw projectiles at officers. Paris police said most demonstrations proceeded without serious trouble but that several hundred people attempted to confront security forces.
Violent incidents over the previous week included schools being set on fire, attacks on firefighters and incidents involving gasoline.
A youth in La Ciotat near Marseille sprayed petrol toward a teacher, according to regional education officials. In a separate incident at Victor Hugo High School in Marseille, two teachers were inadvertently splashed with gasoline when a student attempted to throw it into a trash container, authorities said.
Outside Saint-Exupéry High School in Marseille, a crowd forced firefighters away from their vehicle before setting the truck on fire. Schools were also damaged by fire in Nantes and Le Havre.
Claims that rioters deliberately tried to murder school employees by setting buildings ablaze and blocking exits have circulated widely, but Reuters reporting reviewed Tuesday did not establish that specific allegation as a confirmed attempted killing.
French intelligence agencies have separately told government officials that the far-left France Unbowed party, known as LFI, and allied groups helped initiate the protest movement.
A source close to Lecornu said a government crisis meeting was told that intelligence services had reached a “shared assessment” that the unrest originated as “an operation organised by LFI (France Unbowed) and its proxies on the far left,” according to Reuters.
LFI strongly rejected the allegation.
“LFI has always advocated non-violent demonstrations,” LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard said.
“The government, by turning it into a political battle, has added fuel to the fire by insulting and repressing high school students,” he added.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has said agitators were moving from school to school in some areas in an effort to incite violence, while Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said outside groups had hijacked the demonstrations.
The evidence publicly released by French authorities supports accusations of involvement by hard-left activists and outside agitators, but it does not establish Trump’s broader assertion that the unrest is an organized attempt by Islam to “take over” France.
Nor have French authorities publicly identified the protests as an Islamic movement. The demonstrations have involved students from varied backgrounds, teachers, parents, unions and political activists, with the stated grievances centered on school staffing, building conditions and education funding.
Some of the most serious violence, however, has increasingly overshadowed those original demands.
On Monday, a 15-year-old boy lost his hand and part of his lower arm after picking up a police grenade during clashes in northern France. Rights organizations, parents and students have accused police of using excessive force against minors, while the government says violent outsiders have exploited legitimate grievances.
The political stakes are rising as France approaches its 2027 presidential election.
The government has faced sustained criticism over public debt and proposed spending restraints. Its draft 2027 budget would increase education spending by 1.7%, below the inflation rate, at a time when students say schools are struggling with staffing shortages and inadequate facilities.
Lecornu has ordered ministers to address several of the protesters’ principal demands, including replacing absent teachers more quickly, reconsidering the length of the school day, examining lunch breaks and accelerating repairs to aging buildings.
The government is simultaneously moving toward a tougher law-and-order response.
Authorities have urged parents to keep children away from violent protests, opened prosecutions against more than 1,800 people and discussed requiring youths or their parents to reimburse the state for property destruction.
Tuesday’s violence underscored how far the demonstrations have evolved from their beginnings as school blockades.
The movement now encompasses peaceful student demonstrations, teachers and parents demanding reforms, organized political participation, and separate groups engaging in arson, street fighting and attacks on property and emergency personnel.
Trump’s intervention adds an international dimension to an already highly charged French political debate.
His statement placed immigration and religion at the center of his explanation for the unrest, while French officials have publicly focused on a combination of genuine school grievances, hard-left political organization and violent agitators exploiting the movement.
With more than 6,000 arrests, injuries exceeding 1,000 across students, school employees and police, and widespread disruption throughout the education system, the crisis has already become one of the largest outbreaks of school-related unrest France has faced in decades.
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