Trump Calls Le Pen Case a “Witch Hunt,” Demands Her Release: “European Left Uses Courts to Silence Free Speech”

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday denounced the French court ruling against far-right leader Marine Le Pen as a “witch hunt,” following her five-year disqualification from holding public office over a misappropriation case involving EU funds. The ruling, handed down by a Paris court, could prevent the National Rally (RN) leader from running in the 2027 presidential election.

“The witch hunt against Marine Le Pen is yet another example of how the European Left weaponizes the justice system to silence free speech and censor political opponents — even going as far as to imprison them,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

The White House incumbent likened Le Pen’s legal troubles to his own, claiming that “it’s the same playbook used against me by a bunch of lunatics and losers” who “have spent the last nine years obsessed with nothing else — and they failed because the American people saw through the corruption of lawyers and politicians.”

“I don’t know Marine Le Pen personally, but I admire how hard she’s worked for so many years. She’s faced setbacks, but she’s kept going. And now, just before what would have been a great victory, they go after her over a minor charge she probably knew nothing about. This is terrible for France and for the great French people, no matter what side they’re on. Free Marine Le Pen!” Trump added.

Le Pen was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison — two of them suspended and to be served under probation — along with a €100,000 fine and a five-year ban from holding public office. She was found guilty of orchestrating a scheme that redirected €2.9 million in EU funds to pay party staff falsely listed as assistants to RN Members of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016 — a case similar to ongoing investigations involving other parties.

Le Pen denounced the ruling as “a nuclear bomb” from the French judiciary and vowed to “use every legal means to ensure that the French people can freely choose their future leaders,” stressing that “justice and truth must prevail.” French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, defended the “independence” of the country’s judicial system.