❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump doubled down on his comments on European migration policies, warning that Europe may irrevocably change if current policies remain in place.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald J. Trump, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and Scottish Secretary Ian Murray.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Trump arrived in Scotland on Friday evening for a four-day visit to his golf clubs in Aberdeen and Ayrshire.
💬KEY QUOTE: “They’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore, as you know it.” – President Donald J. Trump
🎯IMPACT: Trump’s remarks have reignited debates over immigration policies in Europe, with Nigel Farage’s Reform Party calling for the number of migrants to be slashed.
President Donald J. Trump has doubled down on his comments Friday regarding Europe’s immigration policies, when he described the situation as a “horrible invasion.” Speaking to reporters on July 28, Trump remarked, “Europe is a much different place than it was just five years ago, 10 years ago. They’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore, as you know it,” he said on Monday.
Trump emphasized illegal immigration, saying, “You cannot let people come in here illegally. And what happens is, there’ll be murderers, there’ll be drug dealers, there’ll be all sorts of things that other countries don’t want, and they send them to you, [like] they send them to us, and you’ve got to stop them.” His comments come amid a surge in migrant boats crossing the English Channel, with more than 40,000 people having landed in Britain since Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party took power last July.
When questioned about Trump’s choice of words, particularly his use of the term “invasion” on Friday, Starmer’s Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, pushed back. “No, I wouldn’t [use the term]… I don’t know whether [Trump is] talking about other European countries there, or the wider context,” he said.
Net immigration to Britain in the year to December 2024 is currently estimated at 431,000, although provisional figures in recent years have all been revised upwards substantially. The total is down from the “Boriswave” peak of close to a million under former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, but still one of the highest figures in British history by hundreds of thousands.
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