Donald Trump yesterday compared Monday’s conviction of Marine Le Pen to his own problems with US, calling the sentence that forbids her from being a candidate in the elections “a very big deal.”

“That sounds very much like this country,” said Trump, who was convicted last year in a fraud case for hiding a payment to a porn actress to buy her silence.

The conviction of the 56-year-old politician, whose rhetoric has been repeatedly compared to that of the US president, is a heavy blow to the one who was considered the favourite ahead of the 2027 presidential election in France.

“Many people thought she would not be convicted of anything,” Donald Trump said. “But she was banned from running for five years, and she’s the front-runner”.

The US State Department also called the exclusion of candidates from a political process “troubling”.

“The exclusion of individuals from the political process is particularly troubling given the aggressive and corrupt legal war against President Donald Trump here in the United States,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters, indirectly commenting on the Le Pen conviction.

Asked during a State Department briefing, Tammy Bruce said “we need to do more in the West to defend democratic values“, echoing JD Vance‘s remarks at the Munich Security Conference when the US vice president stated that in Europe the right to freedom of expression was under threat.

“We support the right of everyone to express their views in public – whether they agree or disagree,” she added and countered the characterization of Le Pen as a “far-right” leader, saying it could be seen as “derogatory.”

The French judiciary has expressed concern about the furious reaction to the decision, as Le Pen’s party and her supporters, as well as leaders in Europe and internationally, have reacted.

The voting ban cannot be overturned on appeal, but Ms Le Pen will retain her seat in the French National Assembly until the end of her term. She was also given a 4-year prison sentence (two years suspended, two years of house arrest) and a fine of €100,000, but as yet Ms Le Pen has not exhausted her legal remedies.