PARIS – Donald Trump has condemned a court ruling banning France's far-right leader from holding public office for five years, calling it an attempt to sabotage a “big victory.”
The US president became the latest to back Le Pen, lashing out at the French justice system, comparing its legal problems to his own and citing the use of the same “script”.
“The witch hunt against Marine Le Pen is yet another example of the European Left using the law to suppress free speech (…), this time going so far as to put an opponent in jail,” Trump said.
“Things are very bad for France.”
Le Pen has kept a low profile throughout the US election campaign and has appeared to distance herself from the current administration in recent weeks.
In early March, she denounced Washington's “cruelty” in suspending aid to Ukraine and criticized US Vice President J.D. Vance for mocking the capabilities of the French military.
“No patriot will agree to hear that our country is 'mediocre', and will not tolerate the disdain shown to the noble memory of the 600 soldiers who died for France and the thousands wounded after the end of the Algerian war,” she wrote in X.
Vance, for his part, expressed his disapproval of Le Pen's sentence in an interview with Newsmax, a channel popular with ultra-conservative American audiences.
“She's leading in some polls. And for a particularly minor charge (…) they're trying to put her in jail and remove her from the ballot,” he said.
The White House's coordinated attack on France's justice system comes shortly after President Emmanuel Macron called on French companies to suspend investment in the U.S. in response to Trump's decision to raise tariffs.
According to data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis published by Le Monde, in 2023, French direct investment in the US amounted to $370 billion, making France the third-largest European and fifth-largest foreign investor on the other side of the Atlantic.
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