President Trump weighed in on Sunday's history-making NFL game in Paris on Friday, and he did not bless it. Asked about the Pittsburgh Steelers' game against the New Orleans Saints at the Stade de France, the first regular-season NFL game ever played in France, Trump said the league could have called it off: "I would've said the NFL could've probably postponed that match. Because France is really in trouble. That's what happens when you go left." The game is set for Sunday, October 25, at the stadium in Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, with the Saints as the home team and kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Paris time on NFL Network.
The trouble he is pointing at is documented, and it has been building for weeks. France's protests began on September 17 over poor conditions in schools and were joined by anger over the rising cost of living, and last weekend the country saw some of its worst urban unrest in years: an estimated 550,000 people marched on Saturday, masked groups set fires, looted shops and attacked public buildings, rioters torched a historic city hall and cars and emptied high-end boutiques. Police arrested at least 1,800 people across the country that weekend, including 855 in the Paris region, and the wider wave of unrest counts arrests in the thousands and nearly 1,000 injured police officers. The disorder has been deep enough to shut even the Louvre, which was robbed and closed amid the chaos. France is braced for more: fresh demonstrations are planned for Saturday, expected to begin at Place de la Bastille, about 10 kilometres from the stadium, and President Emmanuel Macron tightened curbs on protests on Thursday for fear they turn violent.
The American government is speaking with two voices about Sunday. The State Department issued a security alert on Thursday night telling citizens to "avoid demonstrations and areas of unrest," and adding: "Americans in Paris for the NFL game on Sunday, October 25 should also exercise caution and be aware of their surroundings." At the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has personally assured the league the game can go ahead. "Our embassy feels the game will be fine," Rubio said. "We have no indication the game will be impacted in any way." Commissioner Roger Goodell, who spoke with Rubio, put his own comfort level at "very high," saying: "We've made all the preparations. We've been in touch with all the appropriate authorities. Protests are not unusual in France, as you know." The league's executive Peter O'Reilly added that the NFL is being "extremely vigilant" but has never come close to moving or postponing the game.
On the ground in Paris, the build-up has already bent around the unrest and the weather. The Steelers landed on Friday morning but lost their practice session at the Stade de France to Storm Austen, which has put much of the northwest, including Paris, under orange weather alerts; their press conference moved to the team hotel, and the league closed Friday's "NFL Experience Paris" fan event because of the conditions. A day earlier, the Steelers had already cancelled their "Steelers House" fan event in the Bastille neighbourhood as a precaution after the rioting there. The Saints have been in France since Monday, practising in Versailles. Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who at 42 is one touchdown pass from passing Peyton Manning for third on the all-time list, gave the players' version on Friday: "I definitely think that the NFL is alert to what's going on. This game means a lot to the NFL. If it was unsafe, then I'm sure we wouldn't be here."
Trump's Friday remark is the latest in a line he has been drawing all week, and his vice president has drawn it too. Posting about the protests, Trump wrote: "France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country. Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!" He has also said the migrants "have taken over France" and that they must "CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!" JD Vance wrote on X on Saturday: "Western liberals imported the third world into France... they ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility." On Friday, Trump tied the disorder to politics in one sentence, and to the staging of America's biggest sporting export in the middle of it: "That's what happens when you go left."
As of Friday, the documented position is simple. The game is on: the league has not moved it, both teams are in France, the State Department's own secretary has assured the NFL it will be fine, and security coordination with French authorities runs to kickoff. The president's objection stands as a warning from the White House, not a decision, because the decision is not his to make. It belongs to the NFL, and the NFL's answer, repeated all week, is that the first NFL game in France goes ahead on Sunday, in a country the president of the United States says is in real trouble.
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