By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – 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.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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