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US President Donald Trump on Friday used the mass migrant crossings into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta to warn Americans that the United States could face a similar situation if Democrats return to power, as the crisis also fuelled fresh political tensions in Europe.
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“It’s terrible. Remember that picture. That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in,” Trump told Fox News. “If the Democrats get in, you will not live a very good life.”
Trump, who has made immigration a central pillar of his presidency, used the events in Ceuta to reinforce his long-standing argument for stricter border controls.
The White House blamed “far-left globalist policies” for the situation in Ceuta, where at least 43 people have died, many while attempting to swim from Morocco to the Spanish enclave.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez travelled to Ceuta on Friday, blaming people-smuggling networks for the mass crossings and saying their actions “deserve our reproach and our condemnation in the strongest possible terms”.
According to Spain’s Interior Ministry, around 37,500 people who entered Ceuta irregularly since Thursday have already been returned to Morocco.
The European Union has stressed that no migrant crossings from Ceuta to the Iberian Peninsula have been recorded. “There are no migratory movements towards the European continent,” a senior EU official said on Friday.
Fresh tensions with Washington
The latest developments risk opening another front in the often strained relationship between Washington and Madrid, only weeks after Trump and Sánchez appeared to ease tensions during the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey on 19 July.
Their main disagreement remains defence spending. Spain continues to reject NATO’s target of spending 5% of GDP on defence, which Sánchez has described as “unreasonable and counterproductive”. Trump has repeatedly demanded that European allies increase military spending and has warned the United States could reconsider its commitment to NATO if they fail to do so.
Musk joins criticism
Elon Musk also weighed in on the events in Ceuta with a series of posts on X.
In one post, he compared footage of migrants climbing into the enclave to a scene from the zombie film World War Z, writing: “Wow, the situation in Spain looks crazy!”
Hours later, Musk described the post as “a joke” before sharing another video of migrants arriving in Ceuta alongside footage from the US-Mexico border during Joe Biden’s presidency, writing: “This was the United States under Biden.”