Trump Blames Colorado 'Flamethrower' Attack On Biden Immigration Policies
US President Donald Trumppinned the blame for Sunday’s fiery attack on Colorado protesters squarely on former President Joe Biden as he turned an expression of sympathy for the victims into a call to continue his administration’s immigration crackdown.
The suspect in custody, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower to attack a group of people who were protesting in support of the Gaza Strip hostages who were abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023.
Fox News has reported that Soliman was an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa, but those details have yet to be confirmed by law enforcement. Stephen Miller, Trump’s top national security adviser, said on X that the suspect overstayed a tourist visa and was subsequently granted a work permit under the Biden administration.
“Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Monday on Truth Social. “He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy.”
Trump continued, “This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland.”
Soliman reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” in the course of his attack, which left eight people hospitalised — some of them older adults.
Prosecutors charged him Monday with a federal hate crime, one day after the Justice Department denounced the “needless act of violence.” It came around a week after a man shouted support for Palestinians after shooting two Israeli embassy staffers to death outside a Washington, DC, Jewish museum.
Political leaders, including some who have advocated against Israel’s brutal war in the Gaza Strip, swiftly condemned the Colorado attack as antisemitic.
But Republican leaders have taken the opportunity to demand stricter immigration controls.
“This act of terror could have been prevented, but Biden made a mockery of our national security and America is paying the price for his failures,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X.
Senator Jim Banks (Republican, Indiana) wrote that Trump had a “mandate” from voters “for mass deportation of illegals like this one,” but was being stymied by Democrats and federal courts siding with due process protections enumerated in the Constitution.
“‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has $14B for mass deportation efforts & $50B to build the wall + secure our border. Can’t pass soon enough!” he said, affirming his support for the Trump tax bill that passed the House but faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
Miller provided a more gruesome take on the incident.
“Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” Miller wrote on X.
His words seemed to echo his past advocacy for the racist conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants were in the process of “replacing” white Americans and sending the country into decline.