A court’s decision to ban French far-right leader Marine Le Pen from seeking public office is “a very big deal,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday.
“I know all about it and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted for anything,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony for an executive order intended to scrutinize certain practices of concert ticket resellers, where he was accompanied by the performer known as Kid Rock.
In a bombshell verdict Monday, Le Pen, who is the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds and barred from running for office for five years. The decision means she will likely be unable to run for French president in 2027.
“She was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate,” Trump said, referring to Le Pen’s status as the front-runner in polling ahead of the French presidential election. “That sounds like this country, that sounds very much like this country,” he added.
Earlier, a United States official, asked about the court decision, said it is “concerning” when people are excluded from politics.
Asked about the guilty verdict and sentence, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters the American foreign policy department was “aware of reports regarding her sentencing.”
“Exclusion of people from the political process is particularly concerning given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President [Donald] Trump here in the United States,” Bruce said, declining to comment specifically on Le Pen’s case.
Bruce did, though, say she “might disagree with” a reporter’s description of the French politician as “a far-right individual.”
“I don’t know if that’s meant to be derogatory,” she said.
Le Pen herself has rejected the term far right as she seeks to normalize her National Rally party and bolster her electoral chances. She fiercely opposes immigration and is one of the most famous far-right politicians in Europe.
Bruce pointed to U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, in which he blasted Europe for what he claimed were incursions on free speech.
“We have got to do more as the West than just talk about democratic values. We must live them,” she said, paraphrasing Vance’s remarks. Vance has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
In his Munich speech, Vance criticized Europe’s “old, entrenched interests” for “hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’” to suppress alternative viewpoints and quash the possibility of an outsider winning an election.
“We support the right of everyone to offer their views in the public square, agree or disagree,” Bruce said, parroting Vance.
Le Pen’s conviction has elicited a wellspring of support from other far-right figures, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian League party boss Matteo Salvini and Dutch populist Geert Wilders.
Le Pen could still appeal her sentence. If her bid fails, she will get a four-year prison sentence ― two of which were suspended and two to be served under house arrest.
This story has been updated.
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