EDITORIAL. In France, Donald Trump is not very popular, except in the RN, but it's a secret

While the outcome of the American presidential election remains completely undecided, one thing is certain: whether in public opinion or in the French political class, the Republican candidate has few supporters.

If the vote took place in France, Donald Trump would undoubtedly be soundly beaten because the Republican candidate has hardly any supporters in France, the polls show, and no more support among political leaders. Everyone wants his defeat. All or almost all, because he still retains an admirer in the person of Marine Le Pen.

For the RN, Donald Trump remains a model. But “chut!”, we must not say it anymore. In 2016, Marine Le Pen loudly proclaimed her support for the New York billionaire. She even stood around in the lobby of Trump Tower in the hope of being received by her hero. In vain, Trump had snubbed her, she had not gone beyond the ground floor. Eight years later, Marine Le Pen forbade her troops from openly supporting the populist American tribune. Jordan Bardella is one of the few to have eaten the instructions by admitting “love patriotism” by Donald Trump here “defends a form of American pride”. Everyone else is silent.

Why this discretion? Because Trump's radicalization, his excesses, his insults, match the RN's concealment tactics. America's cousin has become a nuisance. A concern that appeared in 2018 when Marine Le Pen made the sulphurous Trumpist advisor Steeve Bannon the guest of honor at the RN congress. From the podium, this standard bearer of white supremacist circles had called journalists “dogs” and launched to the leaders of the RN: “Let them call you racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic… Wear it like a badge of honor !” A real trashing of Marine Le Pen's entire notability strategy.

But fundamentally, Marine Le Pen has no disagreements with Donald Trump, apart from questioning abortion. And again, last year, the RN group was the only one whose majority of deputies refused to approve the constitutionalization of abortion. But on everything else, support for Putin, the abandonment of Ukraine, the weakening of NATO and the European Union, the introduction of customs taxes at the borders, support for fossil fuels, and of course the rejection of immigration, over everything else, therefore, the projects of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are Siamese. However, if the Republican wins, the leader of the French far right could, this time, have a rather modest triumph. They say that great pains are silent. There are idylls that are also. And dangerous connections that are best hidden.