On April 6, at Paris's Place Vauban in Paris, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who had just been convicted of embezzling public funds, played all the cards of anti-system rhetoric one by one when speaking before her supporters: denying the facts, victimization, denouncing a "witch hunt" and attacking judges. In line with the post-truth era, she even compared herself to Martin Luther King. Donald "Trump-like outrage," wrote The New York Times, on April 11. But the American president is unpopular in France and Le Pen is aware of this. She has kept a cautious distance, as she fears that her image might be tainted by his excesses. Trump-like, but not too much.

Right-wing Les Républicains party leader Laurent Wauquiez has no such reservations. He "did a Trump" on April 8, by proposing, in Le JDNews magazine, to send foreigners under a deportation order to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French territory off the coast of Canada. Just like when Trump wanted to turn Gaza into a "Riviera," it could seem to be fake news. Whether the proposal is feasible or not is irrelevant: It aims to divide, to shock, to fanaticize a base. To present his alleged determination against a powerlessness that he denounces. This escalation allows him to gain visibility, all while evading any responsibility.

Billionaire Elon Musk's rhetoric has also influenced French MPs' debates while examining a bill on economic "simplification." Economic liberals have found their master: Now, it is no longer enough to downsize, they must "chainsaw." From Emmanuel Macron-aligned MP Guillaume Kasbarian to far-right Le Pen ally Eric Ciotti, and including the center-right Horizons party, Musk's appointment to the Department of Government Efficiency has sparked envy. "As if everyone had their Trumpist moment," summed up former minister Clément Beaune.

Trump, with his displays of imperium, which has barely been harmed by his about-face shifts, has invaded the French political arena. Political leaders, who have been fragile since the dissolution, which fragmented the Assemblée Nationale and further weakened parties, have been like rabbits caught in headlights, torn between fascination and repulsion, with some copying Trump and others denouncing him – in vain. "It's rare for undercurrents from the United States to not have any repercussions in political life here," said former Socialist MP Christian Paul, a teacher at the social sciences university Sciences Po Lyon. He said he didn't see any "Trump clone," but "an anti-system ideological fuel, a violent poison against political reason, especially as it swims in impotence."

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