Images of French cities being ransacked have made headlines around the world, prompting shock and, more often than not, dismay.
In Trump’s America, and in Netanyahu’s Israel, however, they have been celebrated, while they were mourned by the French people, including French Jews.
US Vice President JD Vance’s speech in Munich in February 2025 made unmistakably clear the low regard the US administration has for Europe’s liberal democracies, as well as its support for the far Right. In this worldview, liberal Europe was losing its values and identity by leaving itself exposed to the winds of immigration, which were transforming it from within.
It is this very interpretation that the Trump administration has embraced to comment on the French riots, in a genuine exercise in Schadenfreude. Images of chaos appear to validate US President Donald Trump’s worldview, depicting a Europe engulfed in flames because of open borders, uncontrolled immigration, and weak governments incapable of responding effectively.
They allow him to press his arguments for closing borders, while also highlighting what he portrays as the permissiveness of the “leftists,” whom he can equate with the Democrats. They also help him justify his own hard-line immigration policies, which were a decisive factor in his 2024 victory.
The rejection of multiculturalism lies at the heart of the Trumpist project, and it now provides a convenient framework through which to interpret the latest dramatic events that have shaken France.
It allows Trump to demonstrate what he sees as the failings of the European model, which he is determined to weaken at all costs. In this respect, the riots in France and Italy, the rise of the AfD in Germany, and the United Kingdom’s vulnerabilities are all blessings for Trump, as he systematically abandons Ukraine while moving closer to Russia.
A victory for Marine Le Pen, which the riots may further help, would represent another extremely positive development in this regard, bringing down a key pillar of European support for Ukraine.
In the midst of an election campaign, they provide the perfect cautionary tale: a counter model to the America Trump wants to promote – an America that is strong, prosperous, anti-communist, anti-immigration, and imbued with a distinctly illiberal spirit.
These images will probably not be enough to save Trump from an anticipated defeat in the midterms. But they offer him the perfect foil as he continues to propagate his own worldview – not the chaos of looted shops and vandalized monuments, but a world left to the law of the strongest, with Trump dealing with Putin and Xi.
This schadenfreude can also be heard in Jerusalem. The Palestinian flags led some to compare the events in France to an intifada and defend the idea of France declaring a two-state solution, one for law-obedient people and one for the rioters, depicted mainly as 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants. This trolling about the “two states” emphasizes the major damage that has been done by these images to France’s credibility on a world stage, including on the Palestinian issue where the French have been at the forefront.
A gift for Israeli diplomacy
After French President Emmanuel Macron’s major unforced error at the UN when he said that Hamas “does not operate” in the West Bank, these riots are another gift from heaven for Israeli diplomacy. The State of Israel can simply discard France’s words as irrelevant, telling them to deal first and foremost with their own problems of lawlessness before criticizing the (very real) one in the West Bank, for instance.
If Washington and Jerusalem can gloat, such is not the case for French Jews, not because these riots were specifically antisemitic, despite the ransacking of a synagogue that was not deemed specifically targeted at this stage, and some rumors about the targeting of Jewish businesses in Marseilles that were denied by French Jewish authorities.
The real fear for French Jews comes from the lawlessness that was on full display this weekend. Throughout their history, Jews know all too well what happens to them when authorities fail to control the mob.
This is especially true in a country like France, where antisemitism is already at alarming levels, with some rioters using the Palestinian flag not to defend the rights of the Palestinians but as a rallying cry against “oppression”.
Many French Jews are in fact asking themselves how authorities could protect them, despite their commitment to do so, if it fails to protect city halls, businesses and regular citizens.
In that sense, the riots in France were not a “Jewish” topic, but they may bear a special significance for French Jews, a much more negative one than for Trump and Netanyahu.
Born and raised in France, the writer is the correspondent of French Jewish radio, Radio J, and of the French paper librejournal.fr in the US, where he has been living for 16 years. He also holds US and Israeli citizenship. His opinions are his only.