Embattled Paris hosts NFL game amid protest violence, thousands of arrests

President Donald Trump said Sunday he repeatedly warned French President Emmanuel Macron over years that immigration was ruining his country.

“Take a look at France. Look at what's going on,” Trump said during a rally in Michigan.

“That's all about immigration. That's not about, oh, the school wasn't clean today.

“They said we didn't like the cleanliness. I didn't see any students there,” he said before adding that he hoped France gets “a lot tougher than they've been.”

“You know, I told President Macron when I first met him ten years ago, I said, you're going to lose your country,” Trump said.

“You're not going to have a country. And I would tell him that every time I met him for ten years,” he added.

“He probably can't stand me,” the president added.

Student groups unveiled a joint 10-point plan in recent days demanding urgent reforms to France’s education system, including 250,000 additional spots in higher education and the abolition of Parcoursup, the country’s university admissions platform, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

The plan also calls for hiring more teachers, repairing deteriorating schools and universities and providing economic relief amid soaring inflation.

The groups are seeking an additional 200 euros ($224) per month in student grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.

President Emmanuel Macron met with high school representatives Friday to discuss their grievances.

Student delegates said he promised to review admissions procedures, but they insisted protests would continue until the government announces concrete measures and binding timelines.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the leading contender in the next French presidential election, launched her campaign on Sunday and pledged to restore order and rebuild national confidence.

"We are not living through the end of the world but the end of a world, their world," she told her audience in the city of Orléans — a symbolic setting closely tied to Joan of Arc.

In her opening remarks, Le Pen vowed to implement "zero-tolerance" policing and said that re-establishing domestic security is the state's main obligation.

“Whoever violates the law, and particularly whoever harms firefighters, teachers, or police officers, will have three certainties: the certainty of prosecution, the certainty of the sentence, the certainty of its execution.”

“For foreign offenders: automatic expulsion,” she said

French President Emmanuel Macron commended law enforcement on Sunday for maintaining order amid nationwide unrest and said that his government would deliver responses to student grievances after meeting with youth unions.

“On behalf of everyone, I want to thank our law enforcement forces, mobilized this week to ensure the republican order everywhere,” Macron said on X.

“Thanks to them and despite a difficult context, the State has risen to the occasion of its missions.”

“I met with the high school student unions on Friday and heard the legitimate expectations of our youth,” Macron added before stating that the prime minister and ministers will “continue this dialogue starting tomorrow and provide very concrete responses.”

This came as protest groups and unions called for more demonstrations to maintain pressure on the government, Reuters reported.

"We see an aggregation of anger," Murielle Guilbert, co-leader of the left-wing Solidaires trade union federation, told BFM TV.

"We call on people to take to the streets next Saturday," she said, according to Reuters. 

France has reached the "dead end of socialism" as violent protests spread across the country, a French artificial intelligence entrepreneur said Friday.

Speaking on "The Faulkner Focus," Brivael Le Pogam blamed decades of left-wing policies for what he described as growing unrest and declining public services in France.

"Right now, we are just seeing the dead end of socialism," Le Pogam, CEO and co-founder of Argil AI, said.

"It's super sad, and it's purely chaotic right now. And I think, so, basically there is a lot of different causes, but mainly, for me, it's the consequences of socialism."

The demonstrations began with students expressing frustration over conditions at their schools and the quality of education. Protests have since spread across France, with some turning violent and leading to looting and thousands of arrests.

On Saturday, thousands marched in Orléans, southwest of Paris, to protest what they described as fascism, while other demonstrators gathered in the capital. 

French authorities said they planned to deploy 70,000 police officers ahead of additional demonstrations to prevent a repeat of the destruction and looting from the previous weekend.

Le Pogam said despite France's universal healthcare system, patients in some parts of the country face lengthy waits to see a doctor or receive certain medical services.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Madison Colombo.

From mass arrests in France to troop deployments in Italy, European leaders are taking varied approaches to protests and clashes across the continent. The unrest began in France in mid-September with student demonstrations over school conditions, then spread to other countries, where protests have centered on local grievances.

President Donald Trump has used the unrest to press his hard-line immigration message, blaming France’s protests on immigration and urging the country to close its borders.

French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back, calling foreign leaders' comments "unacceptable and even stupid" and accusing them of exploiting France’s crisis for political gain.

Here’s how leaders across Europe are responding.

France vows to make rioters pay as cities assess damage

Macron has vowed that those who loot or destroy property will be held accountable and made to pay for the damage. French authorities deployed 70,000 police officers nationwide Saturday as demonstrations took place in Paris and other cities.

Some clashes broke out in several cities, including Paris, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Nantes. Police used tear gas, sound grenades and water cannons, and the Interior Ministry reported more than 1,300 arrests.

Most union-organized marches were peaceful, though clashes broke out later in Paris and several other cities. Separately, a French intelligence assessment reportedly identified Antifa and other far-left groups as instigators of some of the violence, according to a French outlet.

Italy takes one of Europe's toughest lines

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned what she called "gangs of thugs" who used demonstrations to "sow chaos," and voiced support for police facing violence in several Italian cities.

Additional soldiers to Milan and approving tougher penalties for minors involved in vandalism. She said destroying and stealing was a crime and that the state's response would be firm.The measures put Meloni among the European leaders taking the most visible steps to deter further violence.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Amanda Macias.

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by Tim Graham, Executive Editor of Newsbusters.

For decades, American broadcast news networks have touted the benefits of socialism in France, from government-funded daycare to healthcare to a mandated five weeks of vacation. 

NBC host Katie Couric summed it up in 2001: "The French, they’ve got it right, don’t they?"

Socialism is always a warm, comforting blanket. It can’t ever fail. So, when violent rioting recently broke out in Paris and other cities, the preferred TV term was failing "public services."

On Oct. 19, ABC foreign correspondent Tom Soufi Burridge said, "The protests Saturday, involving hundreds of thousands of people, were supposed to be about the cost of living and the state of France’s public services, but the situation quickly spiraled out of control in multiple French cities."

"CBS Mornings" star Gayle King echoed that, saying, "The demonstrations began to protest the rising costs of living and declining public services." 

CBS reporter Aidan Stretch also cited a "ballooning government deficit," which is code for overspending. The socialists blamed undertaxing.

Most network reports didn’t avoid reporting that there was violent rioting, looting and property destruction. But they claimed the protests were "hijacked" by bad people. 

CBS’s Stretch pushed the split, saying, "The most extreme unrest was in cities across France, where protests over poor school conditions and worker pay were hijacked by masked rioters who torched cars, burned down government buildings and looted stores, stealing most of the inventory from this boxing shop."

On the "PBS News Hour," Ross Cullen blamed "underinvestment" by the socialists.

"More than 600,000 people took part in peaceful rallies across the country, a convergence of different protest movements demonstrating against high gas prices, rising inflation and underinvestment in public services," Cullen said.

"But the unrest that took hold after the demonstrations was unprecedented."

There was still some ludicrous "mostly peaceful" phrasing. Many mocked the BBC after its Paris-based reporter, James Waterhouse, claimed, "They were mostly peaceful, but as we saw in the capital, in the wings were those who wanted to take advantage of the disorder."

Louis Sarkozy, son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, discussed violent unrest in France, the influence of far-left groups and the country’s immigration and economic challenges on Sunday.

Fox News' Jonathan Hunt reports from Paris on protests over the cost of living, education and jobs, as demonstrations spread to other European countries.

Former ambassador-at-large Nathan Sales discusses the widespread security threat from the European protests that turned into riots.

After the wisdom of America's most popular sport was questioned over its insistence to play its first-ever game in France in the wake of a Saturday filled with protests and violence, the NFL kicked off inside Paris's Stade de France on Sunday.

So, we've learned a lesson: The league that played the fabled Ice Bowl in temperatures of minus-13°F, played the Fog Bowl in zero visibility, and played Super Bowl XXIII just days after riots in Miami, has a new a benchmark for playing despite difficult circumstances.

Surrounded by a heavier security presence than perhaps any NFL regular-season game before, the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints kicked off just as the league planned for months at around 3:30 p.m. Paris time (9:30 a.m ET in the United States).

The game is being played in the wake of an exhausting Saturday in which a government estimated 110,000 protesters consisting of students, workers, farmers, socialists, communists, pro-Palestine Muslims, anarchists, Antifa and other radicals took to the streets to march, battle police, and cause civil unrest.

And although that unrest forced the shuttering of Saturday's three official fan events planned by the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints, it didn't claim Sunday's game.

Stade de France, approximately nine miles north of the Eiffel Tower, was near capacity at kickoff.

It is unknown if the game has faced any credible security threats prior to kickoff. Emails to the league's security department and the Prefecture de Police de Paris have not been answered by publication time.

And while the teams and players will tell the tale of this game, the story of how it remained as scheduled despite the surrounding violence is an equally compelling and perhaps controversial narrative.

This is an excerpt from an article by Armando Salguero.

Former ambassador-at-large Nathan Sales discusses the widespread security threat from the European protests that turned into riots.

Fox News' Jonathan Hunt reports as demonstrations spread from France to other European countries including Italy and Spain.

Hunt detailed how French authorities deployed water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds in Paris throughout the weekend.

Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reportd on the stores and museums closing in Paris amid protests on "Fox Report."

French authorities have deployed an estimated 70,000 police officers to keep the peace amid mass unrest.

President Donald Trump argued that Democrats winning the midterm elections and securing the House and Senate would lead to the types of protests wracking France this weekend.

Trump made the comment during a campaign rally in Georgia on Saturday night where he repeatedly targeted Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.

President Donald Trump argued that open border policies led to widespread riots in France during a rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday.

Trump argued that law enforcement in France is not allowed to do their jobs, and the country is suffering for it.

French protestors take to the streets for another weekend as President Emanuel Macron takes a tougher stance Sunday, blaming the "ultra-left" for the unrest.

Macron has banned protests by "individuals or groups with no legitimate authority," leading to thousands of arrests across Paris.

President Donald Trump questioned whether the NFL should have postponed Sunday's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints as France grapples with another weekend of nationwide protests.

"I think maybe it’s looking like tomorrow is going to be a bad day in France, so you worry about it," Trump told reporters Friday, according to The Associated Press. "I would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match ... because France is really in trouble."

The matchup at Stade de France, just north of Paris, is scheduled to be the first regular-season NFL game held in France. The U.S. State Department has urged Americans attending to exercise caution amid the unrest.

Security concerns have already disrupted sporting events in the French capital, with a Steelers fan event canceled and a Paris Saint-Germain soccer match against Lyon moved to Monday at the request of police.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.