President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday placed the blame for the deadly New Year’s Day attacks squarely on outgoing President Joe Biden’s “open borders” policy, tying it to the rise of “radical Islamic terrorism” in America.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came after two tragic incidents on New Year’s Day. In the first, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring dozens more. Authorities confirmed that Jabbar, a Texas native, was inspired by the terrorist group ISIS. In the second, a man identified as Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army veteran, allegedly drove a Tesla Cybertruck to the front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas and detonated its contents, which included fireworks-style mortars. Livelsberger was killed in the explosion.
In his post, Trump criticized Biden’s immigration policies, stating, “With the Biden ‘Open Border’s Policy,’ I said, many times during rallies, and elsewhere, that radical Islamic terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe. That time has come, only worse than ever imagined.”
Trump also took a shot at Biden’s presidency, calling him “the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER,” and vowed that the actions of the current administration would “not soon be forgotten.”
Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025, previously condemned the New Orleans attack as an “act of pure evil” and promised full support for the city’s recovery. He also vowed to take strong actions to combat such violence once in office.
