Marine Le Pen and Trump: The National Front’s American Dream?

According to Le Parisien, Le Pen’s entourage is working toward a meeting with the Republican presidential candidate.

Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen in the same photo? The National Front president’s entourage, according to Le Parisien, is dreaming of this opportunity. The French daily states that Marine’s team is working toward a meeting between the European Parliament member and the ranting Republican candidate. “We wanted to make this trip after Trump got elected, during the period where he is president-elect (elected but not yet in office),” explained a source close to the candidate. This would situate the eventual meeting between November and January.

During the race for the White House, the National Front has made no mystery of its preference for Trump. Populist and Islamophobic, the Republican promotes drastic measures to limit immigration and a less interventionist foreign policy, which makes him highly compatible with Le Pen. It remains to be seen if the wish for a meeting is shared on the American side. There is no evidence to suggest this, as support for the National Front becoming more mainstream does not export well.

Throughout her prior trips abroad, Marine Le Pen has never met such a high profile personality. In 2011, her first trip to the states turned into a fiasco, with “secret” meetings and chases with the press. During a recent visit to Canada, the NF president failed to meet high-ranking ministers. Prudently, the head of the National Front issued a denial on Friday via French political newspaper Le Lab d’Europe 1 that a meeting with Trump would soon be on the table. When looking to gain presidential stature, the candidate should go on several trips abroad during the course of her campaign, but her destinations remain unclear for the moment.

Jean-Marie Le Pen remains the only National Front leader to this day to have met an American president in office. In February 1987, the self-proclaimed “French Reagan” shook his idol’s hand during a banquet in the United States. Legend attributes this very brief meeting to the involvement of an influential member of the Moon sect, which at that time had an alliance with the National Front.