Trump says 'France is burning', country 'shattered' by immigration

US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the events in France, blaming immigration for the unrest. He also urged the country to tighten its migration rules. Those comments come after similar remarks made by Vice President J.D. Vance on Saturday. For more on that, we have The Guardian's Washington Bureau Chief, David Smith, joining us. David, so what else did Trump have to say on Saturday's protests? Donald Trump has been talking about the need for secure borders, which, of course, fits with his political agenda. He wrote a social media post saying France is burning He claimed that this is what happens when you have immigration of what he called people with hatred in their hearts and said a once great nation is being shattered by this. at a campaign rally, he made similar remarks and in quite a mocking tone about France being subject to endless revolutions and let's join the revolution and so on. And as ever, J.D. Vance made a similar point in perhaps even more clinical language, suggesting this is the great crisis for European nations who give up their sovereignty and directly linking it to America's midterm elections, where, of course, immigration is once again an issue as ever on the U.S. domestic agenda. And I think ultimately that's what's really going on here. Trump and Vance see an opportunity to promote their America First agenda. It's been there for Donald Trump since the beginning, since he wrote down that escalator talking about the threat of immigrants from uh mexico um we heard again just a week or two ago uh the secretary of state um marco rubio delivered a speech in greece where he was championing the virtues of western civilization and uh describing some leaders and nations that are too too weak to protect those values uh and you know the threat of uh outside immigration um and i think ultimately um it uh this is uh for Trump and Vance, also a lot about next month's elections. They want to draw that parallel from France to what might happen in America, they argue, if the borders are reopened, if immigration rules are too lax. They've criticised former Democratic President Joe Biden for that, and they will now point to France as a warning of a dangerous future. But it's not the first time Trump has made such comments, though, is it? I mean, He's attacked France and Europe before over immigration, going all the way back to his first presidency. That's right. I mean, back in 2018, Trump was attacking France and Emmanuel Macron. He was mocking French wine, even. um we've had we've had uh disputes over the years around uh nato and the paris climate agreement and uh a whole a whole range of uh issues um even earlier this year of course uh trump gave a speech where he was uh uh mocking uh emmanuel macron's uh french accent and uh and his marriage um that was posted on the white house account and then later taken down it's been a very um stormy uh up and down relationship because because when they meet, there seems to be quite good chemistry between Trump and Macron. And it's all smiles. But then sometimes Trump will sort of wield the knife in a social media post hours later. And of course, in that he's not singling out France alone. He's attacked a whole range of European allies over the years, not to mention, of course, also next door neighbor, Canada. It's part of a wider pattern where Trump seems to condemn what's happening in America's longstanding allies, while, of course, heaping praise on strong men such as Kim Jong-un of North Korea, and most notably of late, Vladimir Putin of Russia. It is quite a head-spinning situation, a reverse of decades of American foreign policy. And it's no surprise that So, you know, the recent events in France give Trump an opportunity to expand that pattern. David, thank you. That's David Smith for us in Washington there.