Donald Trump has joined the chorus of right-wing—and, in some cases, even establishment—world leaders condemning a Paris court’s decision to ban Marine Le Pen from running for office.
The U.S. president compared the National Rally leader’s persecution to the blatantly partisan legal witch hunt against himself and said the ruling was a “very big deal.” This suggests that the French Right could eventually benefit from the state’s embrace of lawfare, just as Trump did in America.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce also decried Le Pen’s exclusion as “particularly concerning given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President Trump here in the United States,” adding:
We support the right of everyone to offer their views in the public square—agree or disagree.
In an apparent reference to Vice President JD Vance’s February Munich speech on Europe’s “enemy within,” Bruce also called on the West to “do more” than simply “talk about democratic values. We must live them.”
Trump’s administration has appealed to the same values when responding to the UK’s attempts to dodge hefty U.S. car tariffs, with one source telling The Daily Telegraph there should be “no free trade without free speech.” The official was referring to the case of a British woman who was arrested in March 2023 for peacefully protesting near an abortion clinic, simply by holding a sign reading: “Here to talk if you want.”
A UK government source responded by describing attacks on free speech as a “bugbear” of Trump’s team, adding that “I don’t think”—(translation, don’t hope)—“enhancing our economic engagement that is beneficial for both countries is contingent on this particular issue.”
