Right-wing French leader Marine Le Pen was barred from seeking office for five years and handed a jail sentence on Monday after being found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court—a development President Trump said sounded all too familiar.
The case involved allegations that Le Pen and other National Rally figures illegally used European Parliament funds to hire party employees, though she has denied wrongdoing and is appealing the ruling.
“That’s a very big deal,” Trump told reporters.
“I know all about it. And a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything,” he continued. “And I don’t know if it means conviction, but she was banned for running for five years and she was the leading candidate.”
“That sounds like this country, it sounds very much like this country,” he added.
REPORTER: Marine Le Pen got convicted in court and is now banned from running for office for 5 years. Do you have a comment?@POTUS: "That's a big deal... a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything... that sounds very much like this country." pic.twitter.com/nnx5Fbvvv6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 31, 2025
Elon Musk and others highlighted how the same has been done to other populist leaders around the world.
When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2025
This is their standard playbook throughout the world. https://t.co/FgmgeyQ2rp
This will backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2025
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The conviction of Le Pen, which bans her from running for office for five years, comes amid legal prosecutions of other right-wing politicians, ranging from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Romania’s Călin Georgescu to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Fox News Digital reported last year, after a Manhattan jury convicted then-former President Trump of falsifying business records, that legal experts saw similarities between his case and the ongoing corruption prosecution against Netanyahu. […]
Other cases where world leaders and politicians on the right have been targeted include Netanyahu, who was charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a legal saga that started four years ago and is still unfolding. Netanyahu has flatly denied all the accusations against him.
Romania’s right-wing presidential frontrunner, Georgescu, was barred from the race under criminal charges he compared to those Trump faced. […]
Just last week, Brazil’s Supreme Court accepted charges against former President Bolsonaro over an alleged attempt to remain in office after his 2022 election defeat, ordering the former leader to stand trial.
Italy’s Vice Premier Matteo Salvini, who was cleared in December of illegally detaining migrants, called his case "a declaration of war by Brussels."
Eugene Kontorovich, a legal expert and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told Fox News Digital, "France follows the pattern of political prosecutions in the U.S. and Israel, where criminal prosecutions for obscure victimless offenses are used to knock out popular leaders of right wing parties, and use to courts to stand between the electorate and their preferred candidates. It is unlikely these cases are all happening within a year of each other: Leftists around the world are learning from, and legitimizing, each other’s tactics." (Fox News)
In an interview after the ruling, Le Pen said “If that’s not a political decision, I don’t know what is."
“There are millions of French people who believe in me, millions of French people who trust me," she added. "For 30 years I’ve been fighting for you, and for 30 years I’ve been fighting against injustice, so I’m going to continue fighting."
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