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Donald Trump and his Republican allies seized on the terrorist attack in New Orleans to blame Joe Biden and deliver the latest burst of criticism of his policies in the final weeks of his presidency.
An incident in which at least 15 people diedand the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel have also fueled Republican narratives that claim crime is out of control — and that only Trump’s new national security and immigration crackdown team will fix it.
“With Biden’s ‘Open Border Policy,’ I have said, many times at rallies and elsewhere, that radical Islamic terrorism and other forms of violent crime will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe. That time has come, only worse than could be imagined.” Trump he wrote on Truth Social Thursday morning.
Trump and others Republicans at first he claimed – falsely – that the New Orleans gunman was an immigrant from across the southern border. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who authorities said was inspired by the Isis terror group to carry out the attack and was killed in the attack, was a 42-year-old US military veteran from Texas who worked for financial services groups including Accenture and Deloitte.
On Thursday, the FBI said he acted alone. The agency also said it had not established a link between the New Orleans attack and the Cybertruck explosion in Nevada, which killed one person and injured seven others.
But Trump’s allies have doubled down on the Bidens’ claims immigration policies – or immigration in general – were behind the violence, echoing the lines of attack Trump used in defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential race.
“Islamist terrorism is an import. It’s not ‘native,’” Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller wrote, on X. “It didn’t exist here before migration brought it here.”
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that the US has been “lax” on national security, encouraging groups such as Isis. “President Trump will come into office and we will secure that border. We will conduct a deportation operation. We concentrate and prioritize threats to public safety and threats to national security.”
Republicans close to Trump are also trying to use the attack to boost their campaign to secure quick Senate confirmation for some of the president-elect’s top national security jobs.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, his pick to head the FBI, are all controversial picks facing Senate confirmation battles in the coming weeks.
“The US Senate must confirm President Trump’s national security team as soon as possible. Lives depend on it,” John Barrasso, a Republican senator from Wyoming, wrote to Xu shortly after the Louisiana attack.
“That’s why coming into President Trump’s cabinet is so important,” Mike Waltz, the Florida congressman whom Trump has chosen to be his national security adviser, told Fox News on Thursday. “It has to be in place on day one, folks, because this is a moment, in transition, of vulnerability.”
The deep skepticism of Trump’s allies about US federal law enforcement agencies has resurfaced after the New Orleans attack. Lawmakers close to the president-elect have criticized the FBI for focusing too much on “diversity, equity and inclusion” and for its role in the Justice Department’s prosecution of Trump.
Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, questioned why Alethea Duncan, the FBI’s special agent in charge of New Orleans, initially said the attack was not a “terrorist event.” Iowa Republican Ashley Hinson invited FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify before Congress about the attack.
“The FBI must regain the trust of the American people. That means FULL transparency and accountability throughout this investigation. It also means eliminating DEI and vigilante interference and focusing solely on countering threats to protect Americans,” Hinson wrote on Xu on Thursday.
Biden spoke about the attack in New Orleans and the Camp David investigation on Wednesday, and called his homeland security team together to discuss the latest developments on Thursday.
On Trump’s side, Waltz has been in touch with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, but said they aren’t counting on the outgoing administration much.
“They are trying to piece together the information. But we’re not waiting for what we’re getting right now from the White House. Everyone has their feelers to keep President Trump informed as much as possible,” he said.
