‘Loosely tying this incident to examples’: Journalists expect Trump to use the New Orleans terrorist attack as anti-immigration propaganda

A tragedy is always ripe for the picking for Donald Trump.

In an unshocking turn of events, the president-elect is using the recent terrorist situation in New Orleans to further his anti-immigration agenda. On Thursday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman predicted that Trump would continue to use the attack to strengthen his agenda prior to Inauguration Day.

They’re tripling down,” she said. “His communications director, Steven Cheung, sent me a statement … loosely tying this incident to examples where immigrants have crossed the border who had ISIS ties.

On New Year’s Day, a truck drove through the iconic Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing at least 14 people while they celebrated. While much is still not known about the attacker, it is being investigated as terrorism by the FBI. And, of course, before families even had time to mourn, Trump incorrectly linked it to immigration issues. Then, when the suspect was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is a U.S. citizen from Texas, he continued to double down.

On Thursday, Cheung provided a statement to HuffPost, saying:

“President Trump rightfully highlighted that criminals crossing the border have committed some of the most heinous crimes this country has witnessed in its history. That is a factual statement. It is also true that radical Islamic terrorism and its warped ideology have crossed into our country and infected those looking to spread hate and violence.”

Of course, if you read into it, it does not address the core issue at all. Rather, it is a statement deflecting blame, pushing aside Trump’s mistakes to continue to push his anti-immigration agenda. In a way, it’s smart. The immigration issue is one that his supporters especially focus on, and it does not matter that Trump was initially incorrect about the citizenship status of the suspect. Yes, it is true that ISIS is, in fact, an issue. It still does not take away the truth that Trump was wrong (and racist) in his initial assumption and will not take that back. Because why would he, when there are never any consequences for him?

This should not be a time for politics

This has also given free-reign for elected Republicans to continue to criticize the Biden administration. While we all know that this wasn’t something that was “planned,” it is fairly obvious that his team is leaning into it to rile up their supporters. When he comes into office, Trump vows mass deportation. What better setting for it?

It continues to be a dangerous time for immigrants. Tragedies should not be exploited for political gains. 2025 has hardly begun, and already we are seeing mass losses. These families should be able to grieve without seeing talking heads on every channel discuss whether or not this means nobody should be allowed in this country that isn’t born here. Never mind that we are all immigrants, unless you are of Native American descent. Haberman additionally said of border crossings, “[Immigrants who had ISIS ties] were relatively small in number compared to the number of border crossings there are daily.” Will that matter to Republicans? Probably not. The original American Dream is gone.