Trump pins Boulder attack on Biden border policy after suspect named as illegal alien

US President Donald Trump said an attack on pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado was a result of his predecessor Joe Biden’s border policy Monday, while his envoy to Israel Mike Huckabee said coverage of Gaza by major news outlets was helping fan antisemitic hatred.

Federal and state officials accused Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national residing in the US illegally, of hurling Molotov cocktails and attempting to use a makeshift flamethrower to attack a group of people rallying Sunday for the release of hostages kidnapped from Israel by Gazan terrorists, wounding 12 people.

Soliman “came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, entered the US on a nonimmigrant visa in 2022, during Biden’s tenure, and stayed after the visa expired.

An FBI affidavit said Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody following the attack Sunday and told the police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

He faces charges of attempted murder and a federal hate crime charge over the attack targeting volunteers with Run for Their Lives, which organizes running and walking events to call for the immediate release of Israelis being held in Gaza.

Witnesses said Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” as he launched the attack, which came less than two weeks after the killing of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington by an attacker who shouted the same thing as he was being arrested. The FBI described the incident as a “targeted terror attack.”

“Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” wrote Trump, adding: “My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy.”

The statement did not mention antisemitism or Israel.

Soliman was living in the US illegally after entering the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on the social platform X.

McLaughlin said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023 that had expired. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.

According to state court documents, Soliman was born in Egypt and spent 17 years living in Kuwait before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, where he lived with his wife and five kids.

He worked as an Uber driver and had passed the company’s eligibility requirements, which include a criminal background check, according to a spokesperson for Uber.

An online resume under Suliman’s name says he was employed by a Denver-area health care company working in accounting and inventory control, with prior employers listed as companies in Egypt. Soliman listed Al-Azhar University, a historic center for Islamic and Arabic learning located in Cairo, on the resume.

‘Antisemitic climate’

Huckabee tied both the Washington and Boulder killings to coverage of Gazans being shot near an aid distribution site on Sunday by major US media outlets, which he accused of “arguably contributing to the antisemitic climate.”

His statement echoed Israel’s own response to the attack in Boulder.

“Without verification of any source other than Hamas and its collaborators, the New York Times, CNN, and Associated Press reported that a number of people seeking to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund were shot or killed by the Israeli Defense Forces,” Huckabee said in a statement.

“These reports were FALSE. Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos,” Huckabee said, demanding an “immediate retraction” by the news sites.

“The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States,” Huckabee said.

Multiple witnesses and Hamas authorities claimed Sunday that Israeli troops opened fire on Gazans as they were on their way to a humanitarian aid distribution site managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund in Rafah.

The Israel Defense Forces late Sunday said it didn’t shoot Gazans at or near the distribution site, though an Israeli military official said troops fired warning shots at several suspects advancing toward them overnight about a kilometer away.

It was unclear what drone footage and first-hand accounts Huckabee was referring to.

GHF, the US- and Israel-backed body in charge of the aid distribution, insisted that “aid was again distributed today without incident,” and published videos ostensibly showing that no Palestinian civilians were shot at the site after dawn.

However, the Associated Press cited eyewitnesses as saying that the incident in Rafah occurred before dawn, as thousands marched toward the aid site. Israeli troops had ordered them to disperse and come back later, and as the crowds arrived at a roundabout around a kilometer away at 3 a.m., the IDF opened fire, the witnesses said.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, whose tolls cannot be verified, said 31 people were killed and 170 others were wounded by Israeli fire in the incident.

A US embassy spokesperson told The Times of Israel that Huckabee’s claims were based on first-hand accounts from GHF staffers.

The embassy spokesperson also cited IDF drone footage, but footage released by the IDF was not shot at the time or place where the incident in question took place. The spokesperson did not provide any further information.

“Media sources who willingly parrot these libelous allegations should recant their fake news stories, apologize and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact instead of engaging in dangerous propaganda that assists the terror group Hamas as they continue to hold innocent hostages for over 600 days after butchering over 1,200 people on October 7th,” said Huckabee.

The Hamas assault of October 7, 2023, saw thousands of terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza and touching off a global spike in antisemitism fueled by anger over Israel’s military response.

Sunday’s attack took place at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall, a four-block area in downtown Boulder frequented by tourists and students. According to an affidavit, Soliman planned the attack for a year.

He told police he dressed up like gardener with an orange vest in order to get as close to the group as possible, even purchasing flowers from Home Depot. He had gas in a backpack sprayer but told investigators he didn’t spray it on anyone but himself “because he had planned on dying.”

He told investigators he only threw two Molotov cocktails at the group “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said 16 unused Molotov cocktails were recovered by law enforcement. The devices were made up of glass wine carafe bottles or jars with clear liquid and red rags hanging out of the them, the FBI said.

Inside his car, law enforcement found papers with the words “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “USAID,” the affidavit says.

Soliman told investigators he constructed homemade Molotov cocktails after doing research on YouTube and buying the ingredients.

Authorities initially said there were eight victims, but said four others with minor injuries later were identified.

Police said Sunday night that one of the victims was in critical condition, and two suffered burn injuries severe enough that they were airlifted to a Denver hospital for treatment.

An 88-year-old woman and her husband were the most badly injured in the attack, according to an organizer. Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old, who was critically injured, is a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.

“The immense wave of positive messages we’ve received is another signal of the health and strong spirits of our community,” Wilhelm and his wife said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to respond energetically to this attack by celebrating Shavuot joyously, by attending the reading of the Ten Commandments, and by recommitting to the heritage and traditions we hold so dear.”

On Monday, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry condemned the attack, wishing a speedy recovery to the victims and expressing solidarity with the American people and their government.

“UAE expresses its strong condemnation of these criminal and terrorist acts and its permanent rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism targeting innocent people,” said the statement.