President Trump used a Monday night rally in Park City, Kansas, to hold up the unrest in France as a warning for American voters, telling the crowd that a “once great nation” is being “conquered, looted and burned to the ground,” according to reporting from the Kansas City Star and The Guardian.
“If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what’s happening in France, a once great nation that is being conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists who hate Christianity,” Trump said at the Heartland Credit Union Arena, according to The Guardian.
At his Wichita, Kansas rally tonight, President Trump held up the riots in France as a warning for America, calling it "a once great nation that is being conquered, looted and burned to the ground" and blaming left-wing politicians for mass migration.
via @nicksortor pic.twitter.com/6e6C7vpraR
— Daily Beltway (@DailyBeltway) October 20, 2026
“They hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself,” the president continued, according to the same report. He went on to say that “globalists, left-wing politicians have treasonously imported millions and millions of Third World migrants” who he said are “incompatible with Western values,” The Guardian reported. “They despise everything about France, and they’re destroying that country. And we’re not going to let that happen to this country,” Trump said, according to The Guardian.
A rally for Roger Marshall
Trump was in the Wichita area to campaign for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces a tough re-election fight against Democrat Adam Hamilton, according to the Kansas City Star. The Guardian reported that the Kansas stop kicked off a seven-state campaign swing this week through parts of the country Trump carried in 2024.
France was on the program before the president even took the stage. Giant screens inside the arena played about 10 minutes of Fox News coverage of the unrest in Paris and other French cities, according to The Guardian. At least one protester was escorted out of the rally, the outlet reported.
Before leaving the White House for Kansas, Trump told reporters he had warned French President Emmanuel Macron about his country’s immigration policies, contrasting France with his own move to close America’s borders, according to The Guardian.
The president also had news for Wichita’s aviation workers. Trump appeared to back off his threat to ban the sale of jets built by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which employs about 1,500 people in Wichita, and said his administration would take care of the company’s Kansas workforce, according to The Guardian.
What is happening in France
Reporting from the ground in France describes protests with broader roots than the ones the president laid out. The Kansas City Star reported that the demonstrations began weeks ago over teacher shortages and the poor condition of French classrooms before spiraling into wider unrest over the cost of living, and that France’s labor unions have backed the movement. Fishermen, police officers, farmers, construction workers, medical workers and university staff have taken part, according to the Star, which fact-checked the president’s remarks during the rally.
The Guardian, citing its correspondent in Paris, reported that a month-long student protest over crowded classrooms merged with frustration over living costs, bringing together students, teachers and trade unionists.
Why it matters
Trump has made Europe’s turmoil a recurring theme on the campaign trail, and Monday’s remarks tied it directly to the fight for the Senate. His pitch to Kansas voters was simple: the open-border policies he blames for France’s troubles are the ones he says Democrats would bring to America.
Kansas voters will deliver their verdict on Nov. 3, when Marshall’s seat is on the ballot.
Sources
- Kansas City Star: Fact-check of Trump’s Wichita rally comments
- The Guardian: US politics live, Oct. 19
- Daily Beltway on X: rally video
Sources cited
Sources
- Original post: Daily Beltway (@DailyBeltway) on X, Oct 19, 2026
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