U.S. President Donald Trump said the conviction of Marine Le Pen and her exclusion from the presidential election was a “very serious matter”.
“This is a really big deal,” said the U.S. president on Monday when asked about Le Pen’s conviction yesterday, which saw her sentenced to two years in prison and two years of house arrest, in addition to a complete ban from running for office for five years.
“That’s a big deal. That’s a very big deal. I know all about it. And a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything. And I don’t know if it means conviction, but she was banned for running for five years and she’s the leading candidate. That sounds like this country. That sounds very much like this country,” he added.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 1, 2025
"That sounds like this country."
Trump comments on Le Pen being banned for 5 years from running for office. pic.twitter.com/u8DoEHGSyr
Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce commented on the ban and conviction. She referred to Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech in Munich in February, when the politician criticized Europe and defended freedom of speech and democratic principles.
“As a Western civilization, we cannot rest on lip service to democratic values. Political exclusion is particularly disturbing in the context of the aggressive and corrupt legal campaign being waged here in the United States against President Trump,” Bruce said. “We defend the right of every person to express their opinions publicly, whether or not we share them,” she added.
Marine Le Pen was sentenced yesterday by a judge for misusing EU funds in a case that is widely seen as political retaliation and an attempt to keep her running for president in 2027, a position she was widely expected to win.
The court estimated that she, along with 8 MEPs and 12 assistants, misused €2.9 million, as a result of “the European Parliament paying people who in reality worked for the National Rally.” The prosecutor’s office initially alleged that €7 million was used in this way.
Investigators accused Le Pen of leading a campaign to illegally use European subsidies between 2004 and 2016, when she was an MEP. Instead of working in Strasbourg, her assistants were supposed to work for Le Pen’s National Rally party.
