Marine Le Pen doesn't need to be president to claim power over foreign affairs. Leaders of her far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party – Jordan Bardella aside – have been forbidden to comment on the American presidential election on November 5. "Nothing to gain, everything to lose," summed up Renaud Labaye, one of Le Pen's right-hand men, in his reminder to the party's MPs. The far-right officials, were they free to speak their minds, could risk aligning themselves with Donald Trump, a political figure whose image has become incompatible with the RN's efforts to normalize and institutionalize itself.
The RN's reticence puts an end to years of incessant and noisy support for the billionaire. Until this year, its representatives had never missed an opportunity to rejoice in the real estate tycoon's conversion to politics, showering his four years (2017-2021) in the White House with praise, both on social media and in media appearances. "The United States succeeds because it is now proud to be American. Russia succeeds in globalization because its people are proud to be Russian. And I think that this national pride, we could actually draw inspiration from it rather than being in the permanent guilt-tripping of our people," boasted Bardella in June 2019.
In 2017, the young man who would become the RN's president analyzed Trump's victory as the "liberation [of Americans] from a bellicose and corrupt system." Trump's victory and the success of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom in 2016 promised a triumph for Le Pen in France, some thought.
As soon as Trump was sworn in, Le Pen tried to meet him in New York in January 2017. In vain, as she got no further than the first floor of Trump Tower. A year later, she invited Steve Bannon, Trump's former adviser, to her party's convention with great fanfare. Le Pen's supporters were enthusiastic about a policy platform they dreamed of duplicating in France. This excitement was barely dampened later when Trump attempted to challenge the 2020 election results and undermine institutions to block Joe Biden's victory.
After the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the RN's priority was to clear the name of the outgoing US president and blame social media for preventing him from broadcasting his message of appeasement. "There are hundreds of people who are extremists and have sought to interrupt a democratic process," Le Pen said the day after the coup attempt, which was not enough to tarnish the American president's mandate. "Basically, Donald Trump's record is clearly positive: economic growth, rising wages, falling poverty and unemployment, including among black Americans... The cocktail of 'tax cuts and economic patriotism' has worked," said Franck Allisio, who became an MP in 2022.
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