U.S. President Donald Trump offered support to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Thursday after a Paris court earlier this week convicted her and two dozen figures from her National Rally (RN) party of embezzling European Union funds.
French far-right leader and member of parliament Marine Le Pen, President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party parliamentary group, attends the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, April 1, 2025. Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes
U.S. President Donald Trump offered support to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Thursday after a Paris court earlier this week convicted her and two dozen figures from her National Rally (RN) party of embezzling European Union funds.
A judge handed Le Pen an immediate five-year ban on running for office that will bar her from the 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned on appeal beforehand.
The judge is now under police protection after facing death threats, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Le Pen, RN allies and her supporters accused the trial judges of interfering in democracy. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told lawmakers on Tuesday that he "unconditionally supported" the judiciary.
In a Truth Social post late on Thursday, Trump called the case against Le Pen a "Witch Hunt" while praising the far-right leader.
"She suffered losses, but kept on going, and now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about – Sounds like a 'bookkeeping' error to me," Trump said in his post.
Rights advocates have drawn comparisons over the years between Le Pen and Trump over their anti-immigration views and charged rhetoric against minorities.
The French court's ruling was a setback for Le Pen, 56. She was a front-runner in polls for France's 2027 contest until her conviction. Trump compared Le Pen's situation to his own.
Trump was indicted over covering up a hush money payment to a porn star, over attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that he lost and over retention of classified documents after his first term ended. He was convicted in the hush money case. He denied wrongdoing in all cases that he called politically motivated.
Federal charges against him were dropped following his 2024 election win.
"It is all so bad for France," Trump said in his post.
By Kanishka Singh
Russia has committed to helping military governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger acquire arms and training for a planned 5,000-strong force to deploy in the central Sahel region, a statement said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday that trade tariffs announced by the United States were a mistake but their impact should not be overestimated and the reaction needed to be carefully considered.
A group of white Afrikaners was so opposed to majority Black rule when apartheid ended some three decades ago that they carved out a separatist enclave, the only town in South Africa where all residents, including menial workers, are white.
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