Donald Trump and the Kremlin have both blamed immigration for riots that engulfed France over the weekend, in the latest sign that the US president and Moscow share the same worldview.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US President claimed that people “from an entirely different world” had “shattered that once great country”.
"Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!" the US president added.
Vice President JD Vance echoed the messaging on X, attributing the unrest to "third world" immigration and failure to assimilate, while warning American voters of a similar outcome should they support Democrats in the November midterms.
Their comments echoed those of Russia’s presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who characterised the unrest as “Western civilisation’s suicide through migrant chaos”, adding that the west “has fallen because of an inability to discuss and correct consequential mistakes on migration, energy, and warmongering.”
It underlines the extent to which Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and the Kremlin agree on many issues, including immigration, religion and anti-liberal ideas.
Trump appears increasingly open to cooperation with Russia, despite the country’s pariah status over its invasion of Ukraine.
On 9 October, Trump and Putin struck a deal to allow imports of Russian diesel into the US to curb petrol prices that have soared in the wake of the war in Iran.
Days later, Trump froze new sanctions targeting Russian oil and gas, prompting sharp criticism from European allies.
French president Emmanuel Macron had previously criticised the US-Russia energy deal during an EU summit in Brussels, warning that waiving sanctions on Moscow creates "doubts and defiance" among Western allies while failing to stabilise global energy markets.
The European far-right has seized on the French riots to attack immigration in Europe, with many using openly Islamophobic language. In Germany, Alice Weidel, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), described the clashes as an “attack on Western civilisation by migrant mobs and far-left agitators,” arguing that “open borders and mass immigration” were responsible for the destruction.
In Spain, Vox party leader Santiago Abascal posted on X: “This is what awaits Europe with Islamo-leftism. Barbarians ravaging all that remains of beauty and civilisation.”
