Source: Anadolu / Getty
Donald Trump falsely blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies as the spur for a terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, hours after the tragedy.
On early Wednesday morning (January 1), a man driving a pickup truck intentionally drove into a crowd of revelers celebrating New Year’s Eve in New Orleans’ French Quarter, killing 15 and injuring 35. After crashing on Bourbon Street, the man identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police. Before Jabbar was recognized as an American citizen by authorities, Donald Trump declared on social media that the perpetrator was a criminal migrant who got into the country thanks to President Joe Biden’s “open border” policies, claiming on Truth Social that the “criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified Shamsud-Din Jabbar as a 42-year-old former U.S. Army veteran from Texas, who was discharged in 2020. The rental truck had an ISIS flag strapped to the back, and it was later revealed by sources close to the investigation that videos that Jabbar left behind showed he had originally intended to kill his family after being divorced by his wife but changed his mind, referencing several dreams where he was inspired to join the terror group.
The president-elect’s comments were stoked by other right-wing figures who took to speculating wildly online after the incident. Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior domestic policy adviser, blamed immigration overall for the attack in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “Islamic terrorism is an import. It is not “homegrown.” It did not exist here before immigration brought it here.” Fox News had issued an erroneous report Wednesday morning claiming that the truck had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico two days earlier, but would later retract it.
As for Trump, despite the information that has already been published, he is doubling down, attacking President Biden and the FBI and Department of Justice. In another Truth Social post issued early Thursday morning (January 2), he wrote: “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership.” He’d follow that up with another post in the third person, writing: “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.”