Published April 8, 2025
Marine Le Pen’s conviction for embezzlement, coupled with the court’s imposition of a five-year ban on running for public office, matters well outside of France. President Donald Trump has taken note of this, posting “FREE MARINE LE PEN” on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron thus has yet another source of potential disagreement with the American President, as if the controversies over US tariffs and the Trump Administration’s approach toward NATO and the Ukraine-Russia war were not enough. That is something he does not want even as he surely revels privately in the potential demise of his dogged, and dangerous, foe.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
