You doubt whether these riots in France are well coordinated? Then you can explain to me why pallets of bottles magically appear on the street? October 17th was on the agenda for weeks, and not to protest the quality of education.Mostly peaceful and totally organic student protests by people who are very clearly not students. This is the democrats vision for America as well. Don’t France our America.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 18, 2026
Pallets of Bottles
During National Address to France President Macron Says He “Doesn’t Know What Is Going On” but He’s Sure President Trump Is to Blame
Following days of riots, violence, arson, buildings destroyed and mass looting, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a national address to the people of France. Remarkably, in the beginning of his remarks Macron says no one in the French government understands what is happening, but he is demanding an investigation.
A few paragraphs into the prepared transcript and Macron says high fuel prices driven by President Trump’s war against Iran, “a war we had nothing to do with,” is certainly the cause of the protests that have mysteriously turned violent for some unknown reason. Macron further notes those protests are righteous, justified and he agrees with them.
This is quite a remarkable address.
The image below represents the entire dynamic.
The Conservative Treehouse
My dear fellow citizens,I am addressing you this evening at a moment of extreme gravity, after what we experienced yesterday in many cities across France, both in mainland France and in our overseas territories.
Yesterday, Saturday 17 October, factious elements from ultra-left groups, joined by numerous delinquents, engaged in unbridled violence in our cities. Shops were looted, public buildings, stores and town halls were attacked, and some were destroyed. Several hundred police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Looking at these images, we all wondered: what is going through their minds? How can French people do this to France? Why burn down the town hall in Limoges, the tourist office in Lyon, invade the town hall in Marseille, or attack the prefect’s residence in Bordeaux? How can they come to this? Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it.
We all feel anger and shame this evening. Seeing the streets of our cities vandalised in this way is unbearable. On your behalf, I express the nation’s support for our law enforcement and internal security forces. They held firm and did their best. Our thoughts go out to the many injured and their families. I also express our support for all our mayors and elected officials. I want to express our support for the many shopkeepers, artisans and economic actors who have suffered the consequences of this violence and who are now in distress. Some defended their shops and windows themselves against the delinquents. I want to tell them that they will not be left alone to face these difficulties. The government will provide them with answers. Starting tomorrow, the Prime Minister will chair a crisis unit to mobilise the fastest possible aid and support those who are going through these very difficult times.
We must be clear-sighted. Yesterday, despite their professionalism, our law enforcement forces had to endure unprecedented violence in many cities, repeatedly. I have asked the government to draw every lesson in terms of intelligence and anticipation so that this cannot happen again. I expect clear answers, and full transparency will be provided. That is what I have asked of the Minister of the Interior. The investigations will be conducted with all the necessary diligence as quickly as possible, and the greatest firmness has been requested of the prosecutors by the Minister of Justice. Judicial follow-up must be exemplary. Our judges deliver justice in your name and they know what you expect. Every time offences are committed, they must give rise to appropriate judicial proceedings. Those who destroyed must pay. Those who looted must repay. Those who sought to bring down the Republic will have to answer for it.
We must also look lucidly at what is being expressed in the country. Yesterday, several hundred thousand of our fellow citizens demonstrated with the desire to voice legitimate demands. We must never confuse the latter with those who destroyed, smashed and looted. These demonstrators expressed concern about the cost of living and the price of fuel, which have their source in the conflict launched in the Persian Gulf, in which France has not taken part and of which we are suffering the consequences. I fully understand their concern. It is also being expressed in several other European capitals. In this regard, I have taken several initiatives at the international level to secure our fuel and gas supplies and to act on the energy markets. I will continue these actions starting tomorrow morning by travelling to the Gulf countries to secure our supplies. The Prime Minister and the government have also taken decisions in conjunction with fuel distributors so that these efforts are concretely reflected in prices. The government is doing its utmost to address this essential issue of purchasing power. I know that the French expect concrete results and we will continue to act.
For several weeks now, our youth have also been expressing a deep anxiety in secondary schools and universities. An anxiety about the future, about living and study conditions, about the ability to find one’s way, to project oneself, to find one’s place in society. The idea that there is somehow no desirable future. I understand our high-school students and university students. They have been at the heart of my political commitment for more than ten years. Their voice must be heard, without preconceptions and without minimising the difficulties. Work has already been undertaken by the government. The Minister of National Education has mobilised and set up a platform that has collected more than 100,000 contributions, in addition to the meetings held at the level of the academies and secondary schools. This will enable us to build appropriate responses with our youth.
Our responsibility is therefore twofold: to hear the anger and act on its causes, and to firmly uphold republican order. We must neither confuse legitimate demands with violence, nor allow violence to prevent those demands from being heard. That is why I want to set out a clear method this evening. First, in the current context, the prefects will take decisions in conjunction with the mayors to protect our cities, our public buildings and our shops, including by going so far as to ban certain gatherings when necessary and by taking every necessary action. Second, I call on all political parties, professional organisations and trade unions to condemn all violence without ambiguity and to call for calm. Everyone must take their responsibilities. The country needs order and appeasement, not escalation. The Prime Minister will bring these organisations together in the coming days in order to obtain clear and public positions.Third, we cannot ask our youth to believe in the future without giving them the opportunity to help build the responses and to be around the table. Yes, we need to sit down around the table and build solutions together. Pupils, students, teachers, representatives of employers’ and trade-union organisations, local authorities and parliamentarians will work with the government starting this week on concrete proposals. The Prime Minister will convene them in the coming days for this purpose.I want to be very clear here: with regard to the rioters and all those who engage in violence, we will be uncompromising. Listening and dialogue do not mean weakness or impunity. My dear fellow citizens, we are six months away from our presidential election. Six months. And so all those who today tell you that the urgent need is to take to the streets, to demonstrate, to create disorder, have only one aim: to damage the Republic and steal the debate. The choices for the future that you will have, that we will have to make in six months, are essential. France is a great democratic force. It deserves these debates. They must take place in public meetings. They must take place with the parties, and not in the street through violence. They must take place in the newspapers, on television sets, in peaceful gatherings where people speak and explain themselves with respect — never in disorder and destruction. Our country deserves a fine presidential election in six months. It is also being decided now, through a spirit of responsibility.
Yes to dialogue, yes to concrete short-term responses and to the preparation of future decisions. But always no to violence of any kind. We need unity, calm and respect.
Long live the Republic and long live France.
A few paragraphs into the prepared transcript and Macron says high fuel prices driven by President Trump’s war against Iran, “a war we had nothing to do with,” is certainly the cause of the protests that have mysteriously turned violent for some unknown reason. Macron further notes those protests are righteous, justified and he agrees with them.
This is quite a remarkable address.
The image below represents the entire dynamic.
The Conservative Treehouse
An 80-year-old couple was robbed by the rioters in Paris last night. They had their phones, wallets and clothes stolen. They were left humiliated in just their underwear. https://t.co/f8KpzzxUG8
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 18, 2026
My dear fellow citizens,I am addressing you this evening at a moment of extreme gravity, after what we experienced yesterday in many cities across France, both in mainland France and in our overseas territories.
Yesterday, Saturday 17 October, factious elements from ultra-left groups, joined by numerous delinquents, engaged in unbridled violence in our cities. Shops were looted, public buildings, stores and town halls were attacked, and some were destroyed. Several hundred police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Looking at these images, we all wondered: what is going through their minds? How can French people do this to France? Why burn down the town hall in Limoges, the tourist office in Lyon, invade the town hall in Marseille, or attack the prefect’s residence in Bordeaux? How can they come to this? Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it.
We all feel anger and shame this evening. Seeing the streets of our cities vandalised in this way is unbearable. On your behalf, I express the nation’s support for our law enforcement and internal security forces. They held firm and did their best. Our thoughts go out to the many injured and their families. I also express our support for all our mayors and elected officials. I want to express our support for the many shopkeepers, artisans and economic actors who have suffered the consequences of this violence and who are now in distress. Some defended their shops and windows themselves against the delinquents. I want to tell them that they will not be left alone to face these difficulties. The government will provide them with answers. Starting tomorrow, the Prime Minister will chair a crisis unit to mobilise the fastest possible aid and support those who are going through these very difficult times.
We must be clear-sighted. Yesterday, despite their professionalism, our law enforcement forces had to endure unprecedented violence in many cities, repeatedly. I have asked the government to draw every lesson in terms of intelligence and anticipation so that this cannot happen again. I expect clear answers, and full transparency will be provided. That is what I have asked of the Minister of the Interior. The investigations will be conducted with all the necessary diligence as quickly as possible, and the greatest firmness has been requested of the prosecutors by the Minister of Justice. Judicial follow-up must be exemplary. Our judges deliver justice in your name and they know what you expect. Every time offences are committed, they must give rise to appropriate judicial proceedings. Those who destroyed must pay. Those who looted must repay. Those who sought to bring down the Republic will have to answer for it.
We must also look lucidly at what is being expressed in the country. Yesterday, several hundred thousand of our fellow citizens demonstrated with the desire to voice legitimate demands. We must never confuse the latter with those who destroyed, smashed and looted. These demonstrators expressed concern about the cost of living and the price of fuel, which have their source in the conflict launched in the Persian Gulf, in which France has not taken part and of which we are suffering the consequences. I fully understand their concern. It is also being expressed in several other European capitals. In this regard, I have taken several initiatives at the international level to secure our fuel and gas supplies and to act on the energy markets. I will continue these actions starting tomorrow morning by travelling to the Gulf countries to secure our supplies. The Prime Minister and the government have also taken decisions in conjunction with fuel distributors so that these efforts are concretely reflected in prices. The government is doing its utmost to address this essential issue of purchasing power. I know that the French expect concrete results and we will continue to act.
For several weeks now, our youth have also been expressing a deep anxiety in secondary schools and universities. An anxiety about the future, about living and study conditions, about the ability to find one’s way, to project oneself, to find one’s place in society. The idea that there is somehow no desirable future. I understand our high-school students and university students. They have been at the heart of my political commitment for more than ten years. Their voice must be heard, without preconceptions and without minimising the difficulties. Work has already been undertaken by the government. The Minister of National Education has mobilised and set up a platform that has collected more than 100,000 contributions, in addition to the meetings held at the level of the academies and secondary schools. This will enable us to build appropriate responses with our youth.
Our responsibility is therefore twofold: to hear the anger and act on its causes, and to firmly uphold republican order. We must neither confuse legitimate demands with violence, nor allow violence to prevent those demands from being heard. That is why I want to set out a clear method this evening. First, in the current context, the prefects will take decisions in conjunction with the mayors to protect our cities, our public buildings and our shops, including by going so far as to ban certain gatherings when necessary and by taking every necessary action. Second, I call on all political parties, professional organisations and trade unions to condemn all violence without ambiguity and to call for calm. Everyone must take their responsibilities. The country needs order and appeasement, not escalation. The Prime Minister will bring these organisations together in the coming days in order to obtain clear and public positions.Third, we cannot ask our youth to believe in the future without giving them the opportunity to help build the responses and to be around the table. Yes, we need to sit down around the table and build solutions together. Pupils, students, teachers, representatives of employers’ and trade-union organisations, local authorities and parliamentarians will work with the government starting this week on concrete proposals. The Prime Minister will convene them in the coming days for this purpose.I want to be very clear here: with regard to the rioters and all those who engage in violence, we will be uncompromising. Listening and dialogue do not mean weakness or impunity. My dear fellow citizens, we are six months away from our presidential election. Six months. And so all those who today tell you that the urgent need is to take to the streets, to demonstrate, to create disorder, have only one aim: to damage the Republic and steal the debate. The choices for the future that you will have, that we will have to make in six months, are essential. France is a great democratic force. It deserves these debates. They must take place in public meetings. They must take place with the parties, and not in the street through violence. They must take place in the newspapers, on television sets, in peaceful gatherings where people speak and explain themselves with respect — never in disorder and destruction. Our country deserves a fine presidential election in six months. It is also being decided now, through a spirit of responsibility.
Yes to dialogue, yes to concrete short-term responses and to the preparation of future decisions. But always no to violence of any kind. We need unity, calm and respect.
Long live the Republic and long live France.
Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour Group
This morning, I am heading to the side of the directors of our looted stores to express to them all of Carrefour's solidarity.Je me rends ce matin aux côtés des directeurs de nos magasins pillés pour leur exprimer toute la solidarité du groupe Carrefour. Au total, 50 magasins frappés dont 19 magasins de proximité et supermarchés Carrefour pillés et saccagés partout en France, ici à Paris, mais aussi à Rennes, Lille, Bordeaux et ailleurs. Je pense également aux 1500 magasins de toutes les autres enseignes et à tous les commerçants qui ont subi les mêmes violences inacceptables. Il y a de la tristesse mais aussi de la colère face à ce que nos rues nous offrent ce matin : des commerces dévastés, des salariés profondément choqués, des clients consternés. Et je veux saluer le courage et l’engagement de nos équipes, déjà à pied d’œuvre ce matin pour remettre les magasins en état et retrouver au plus vite leurs clients. Pour les magasins les plus durement touchés, les travaux seront malheureusement longs et certains seront durablement fermés. Derrière ces destructions, il y a aussi des conséquences humaines et économiques considérables. Des dizaines de salariés de nos partenaires franchisés seront contraints au chômage partiel. La facture des travaux se comptera en plus d’une dizaine de millions d’euros et nos commerçants ont besoin d’une accélération des procédures d’indemnisation comme dans le cas des catastrophes naturelles. Rien ne peut justifier de telles violences. Ceux qui s’en prennent ainsi à l’outil de travail d’entrepreneurs courageux et de leurs équipes doivent faire l’objet d’une réponse sans complaisance. La République doit protéger ses commerçants !
— Alexandre Bompard (@bompard) October 18, 2026
In total, 50 stores hit, including 19 Carrefour convenience stores and supermarkets looted and ransacked across France, here in Paris, but also in Rennes, Lille, Bordeaux, and elsewhere. I also think of the 1,500 stores of all other brands and all the shopkeepers who have suffered the same unacceptable violence.
There is sadness but also anger in the face of what our streets are offering us this morning: devastated businesses, deeply shocked employees, dismayed customers.
And I want to salute the courage and commitment of our teams, already at work this morning to restore the stores and reconnect with their customers as quickly as possible. For the hardest-hit stores, the repairs will unfortunately be lengthy, and some will remain permanently closed.
Behind these destructions, there are also considerable human and economic consequences. Dozens of employees from our franchise partners will be forced into partial unemployment. The cost of the repairs will amount to more than ten million euros, and our shopkeepers need an acceleration of compensation procedures, as in the case of natural disasters.
Nothing can justify such violence. Those who attack the work tools of courageous entrepreneurs and their teams in this way must face an uncompromising response.
The Republic must protect its shopkeepers!
California Duplicate Registrations
We Californians KNOW he cheats‼️🆘‼️
— Pam Adkisson (@pamadkisson) October 18, 2026
FBI Responds to Senator Whitehouse
FBI agents and analysts fired for roles in Trump classified files probe sue to get their jobs backWhatever you say WhiteCLUB! https://t.co/V4rPR361zE
— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) October 18, 2026
Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste
… Lacoste and Aigle stores are looted, like so many other businesses across France, it is not only shop windows that are being smashed. It is jobs, years of work, know-how, and the commitment of thousands of women and men that are being put at risk.Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste owner Maus has a message following sickening destruction and looting witnessed today across France. grok translation: On this 17 October, faced with the images of violence and destruction striking our country, I refuse to remain silent. When our Lacoste and Aigle stores are looted, like so many other businesses across France, it is not only shop windows that are being smashed. It is jobs, years of work, know-how, and the commitment of thousands of women and men that are being put at risk. When our police officers, gendarmes and CRS are targeted while they are ensuring our safety, another line is crossed. As a business leader, I cannot accept seeing what we are collectively building being destroyed in this way. And I know this concern is shared by many entrepreneurs and shopkeepers throughout France. It is time for our collective voice to be heard. I call on the State to mobilise without delay all the legal means at its disposal to put an end to this violence, and to protect our fellow citizens, our law enforcement forces, our employees and our businesses. We cannot allow violence to destroy what generations have put so much energy into building. Protect those who protect us. Defend those who work. Preserve what makes our country strong. Thierry Guibert CEO of Lacoste
— Angelina Rascouët (@arascouet) October 17, 2026
When our police officers, gendarmes and CRS are targeted while they are ensuring our safety, another line is crossed.
As a business leader, I cannot accept seeing what we are collectively building being destroyed in this way. And I know this concern is shared by many entrepreneurs and shopkeepers throughout France.
It is time for our collective voice to be heard.
I call on the State to mobilise without delay all the legal means at its disposal to put an end to this violence, and to protect our fellow citizens, our law enforcement forces, our employees and our businesses.
We cannot allow violence to destroy what generations have put so much energy into building.
Protect those who protect us. Defend those who work. Preserve what makes our country strong.
Thierry Guibert
CEO of Lacoste
McDonald’s destroyed, but Master Poulet, a halal establishment located right next door and catering in particular to a Muslim clientele, was not touched.McDonald’s détruit, mais Master Poulet, établissement halal situé juste à côté et s’adressant notamment à une clientèle musulmane, n’a pas été touché. Deux commerces voisins, deux sorts différents. Simple coïncidence ou choix délibéré des casseurs ? https://t.co/Ek7GAmhNGB
— Sarah Adv (@Sarahsa09309757) October 18, 2026
Two neighboring businesses, two different fates.
Greta Thumberg, 18 October 2026
Greta Thumberg is now in France telling the Muslim rioters she is “proud of them” https://t.co/a5gGcqmeFo
— Pippa B 🇬🇧🏴 🚜 ❤️ 🇺🇸 (@pippaisright) October 18, 2026
Should Never Have Been Admitted
Excerpt from Ilhan Omar article. Her father should never have been admitted, let alone her as a tag along. Other countries must belly laugh at America constantly. https://t.co/uMfU5J5QDg
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) October 18, 2026
Marine Le Pen, 18 October 2026
French men and women, my dear compatriots,Yesterday you saw with horror on your screens our cities, our streets, our country mistreated, abused, and ransacked.
You have seen destruction and looting perpetrated by an alliance between groups of politicized vandals and delinquents from the suburbs.
You have seen public buildings set on fire, shops looted, police stations attacked, and the home of a prefect targeted.
You have seen the most sacred symbols of our Republic desecrated: town halls attacked, Marianne broken, the authority of the State defied.
You have seen those terrible images of public buildings engulfed in flames, the magnificent Limoges town hall on fire and its campanile collapsing. It awakens in our national memory and in our hearts the painful memory of the Notre-Dame fire. These images hurt us, they wound us, because behind every destroyed building there is a part of our history. There are symbols, references and buildings that, regardless of our opinions, bring us together.
Behind every looted business, there is the work of an entire team. Behind every police officer who is attacked, behind every public servant who is threatened, it is the Republic itself that is attacked. And I want to say this with the utmost solemnity: France cannot, must not, and will never become accustomed to such scenes.
Today I call on all French people to remain calm, dignified, and to exercise republican restraint.
All those who serve the State — and at this time the police, the gendarmes, the firefighters, the prefects — must be assured of my support in their very delicate and perilous function.
I urge the State to provide them with the resources and guarantee the support necessary for their mission. What is at stake today goes beyond the mere question of public order. We are experiencing a profound crisis of confidence and authority that poses a threat to democracy. This observation should alert us: our country is caught, even held hostage, between violence and impotence. On one side, the forces of destruction that normalize violence, encourage confrontation, and target police officers, institutions and representatives of the sovereign State as enemies to be eliminated. This movement, with its political wing LFI and its armed wing the antifa groups — which absurdly refer to the bloody South American revolutions or, more seriously, to the conflict in the Middle East — would have us believe that violence has become a legitimate means of political expression and a solution to the problems of the French.
In reality, these social pyromaniacs are making the situation worse. On the contrary, through the brutal conflict and the abject intolerance that they stupidly intend to spread throughout society, they are adding a problem to the problem.
Each of you knows this: violence is not an opinion. Destruction is not a form of expression. And chaos cannot serve as a project for France. On the other side, we have a Macronist power that is out of breath, exhausted, disoriented, which now seems incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own impotence, its own downfall even.
We have a government that deplores events without managing to prevent, control, or even manage them — a minority and disqualified power whose sole concern is less to govern France than to cling to the last remnants of its dying power.
We have an Interior Minister who, with a complacent and weak fatalism, is content to mechanically tally up the destruction recorded in the country during the day on television each evening. A president without credibility or ghostly authority, and until now silent, who in reality has lost all contact with reality and who lets events decide in his place. These violent events did not arise from nothing. They are operating in a harmful context that the government itself created.
By never being heard and perhaps not even listened to, the worries, the suffering, the complaints of the French have turned into exasperation and sometimes even anger. These angers are often legitimate given the succession of crises without any decisions being made. But let’s be clear, very clear: there are millions of French people who are angry but who are not breaking anything, looting anything, or burning anything.
I therefore strongly condemn the exploitation of these grievances by political forces that encourage violence, as well as the exploitation of these grievances by thugs who sow chaos in the cities of France. To govern, and even more so to preside, is not to pontificate, but to listen and understand in order to act.
No power can forget that in a Republic, in a living democracy, the people are sovereign and that it is necessary to listen to them and accept their will. There is no other way, there is no other choice.
This principle is violated every day. Just recently, the president of the Constitutional Council, in violation of his rank, his mission and the ethics imposed by his function, believed he could express himself as a supporter and even as a militant Macronist in the electoral debate. He came on television sets and, without anyone asking him anything, proclaimed that he would not let the people decide by referendum.
This inappropriate and unwelcome intervention opposing democracy was yet another provocation from a power that is decidedly and dramatically out of touch with the people. But with its tragic riots for the country, its situation and its image in the world, we are also paying for decades of renunciation, decades of anarchic immigration whose consequences everyone is now seeing in all areas. Decades during which the idea took hold that one could attack, burn, destroy without being held accountable for these acts — that the rioters, often perfectly identified by the police, could disappear because behind them there would always be someone to pay: the taxpayer, that is to say you. Faced with this situation, I offer you a clear path, a path that rests on three principles. The first principle I will apply is that of responsibility with the rule of “the breaker pays.”
Anyone who breaks the law must be held accountable for their actions. The person who damages property must pay for it. Anyone who attacks public property, commerce, or representatives of the State should know that the Republic will not back down.
Justice must be swift and effective, and the deliberately dissuasive criminal and financial penalties must be genuinely enforced. The French people, in whose name justice is done, expect the utmost firmness from tomorrow onwards for the perpetrators of these crimes — the same treatment as yesterday. The second principle is the restoration of republican order. There is no freedom without security. There is no justice without authority.
And there is no Republic either when fear seeks to replace legitimate law, when shouting disrupts democratic debate, or when threats are made to the freedom of citizens. The third principle is the return to a State that listens, understands, and decides.
A government that respects the French people instead of despising them. A power that consults instead of stifling. A power that decides instead of shirking its responsibilities. France is greater than those who govern it. She is stronger than those who divide her. It is more resilient than those who would like to destroy it. In six months, the French will be able to choose another path: that of restored authority and security, that of sovereignty and respected democracy.
This is the one I propose.
This will undoubtedly be, for France, the path of hope, the path of rebirth. Long live the Republic and long live France!