Did Donald Trump really blame the New Orleans terrorist attack on immigrants?

The country is still reeling in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans, which has left at least 15 people dead and dozens more injured after a pickup truck drove through a crowd of New Year’s Eve revellers on Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter.

While details of the harrowing attack continue to unfold, authorities have confirmed that a black ISIS flag was flying from the truck’s rear bumper, and that the driver — identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar — was killed in the crossfire when police arrived on the scene. 

The FBI has called the attack an act of terrorism, with President Joe Biden saying in televised remarks after the ordeal that Jabbar was “inspired by ISIS” and “express[ed] a desire to kill.” Meanwhile, president-elect Donald Trump also weighed in on the unfolding story, writing in a social media post hours after the attack that “this is what happens when you have open borders.” While Trump’s message linked the attack to the country’s immigration policies, do we know yet whether Jabbar was actually an immigrant?

Donald Trump falsely suggested the New Orleans attack was linked to immigration. 

Despite his Truth Social post to the contrary — which mentioned the government’s supposed failure in “protecting Americans from the outside” — Trump’s suggestion that the attack was linked to immigration is false. We learned soon after the attack that Jabbar was born in Texas and was a U.S. Army veteran, debunking Trump’s attempts to blame the atrocity on an immigrant. Also in the original post, Trump blamed Democrats — whose immigration policies were a focus of his presidential campaign — for “allowing this to happen to our country.” 

Fox News was one of multiple outlets to fact-check while reporting on Trump’s Truth Social post, with a White House correspondent making clear during a broadcast that “To be clear “the suspect was born in the United States.” In the wake of Trump’s claims, social media was flooded with speculation around the birthplace of the attacker, including in response to a post by Marjorie Taylor Greene on X. 

Trump doubled down on his false claims about immigrants and the New Orleans attack. 

Despite his claims being refuted, Trump went on to declare in a follow-up post (in which he referred to himself in the third person) that “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.” Later, in another statement, Trump again mentioned the attack in connection to “criminals coming in” to the country, saying that his original post “turned out to be true.” He continued, adding “The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.” 

Trump has villainized immigrants with false claims in the past.

Running on a platform of mass deportation, Trump’s presidential campaign included other moments in which he again falsely linked immigrants to crimes. The most controversial of these reared its head in the presidential debate when Trump floated the conspiracy that Haitian immigrants were eating the neighbourhood pets of Springfield, Ohio, a theory that was promptly debunked by the city manager, Bryan Heck.