President Trump said the massive rioting in France is “a full-on revolution” born out of overzealous immigration that risks destabilizing all of Europe.
“They have to straighten out their act. Otherwise there won’t be a Europe left,” the president said Tuesday in the Oval Office while taking questions from reporters during an event on combating fraud.
Images of the rioting have shocked the globe — and Mr. Trump, who said he’s never seen anything like it.
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“That was a full-on revolution,” he said.
Reasons for the riots have been debated, but Mr. Trump said to him it comes back to the type of immigrants who have come to France in recent decades.
He said they have no incentive not to upend things.
“They don’t like the buildings, they don’t like the art, they don’t like anything about the country, and they don’t like the people,” he said.
He declined to say whether he would endorse Marine Le Pen in next year’s French presidential election. She is the head of the right-wing National Rally party and has been arguing for controls on immigration for years.
Mr. Trump did say Ms. Le Pen was “badly treated” by her political system in past elections.
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