“This will backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump,” Musk said in another post.
Vice President JD Vance delivering a withering speech in Munich in February in which he attacked European governments for their approach to a series of hot-button cultural issues.
Both Vance and Musk — plus a hard-line online MAGA contingent — have already identified Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu as one cause célèbre victim of so-called lawfare after a top national court blocked him from running in the presidential election following allegations that his 2024 campaign was boosted by a Russian influence operation.
France now risks becoming new prey for the American right wing, after a stunning court decision torpedoed the surging Le Pen’s bid to win the French presidency in 2027.
Le Pen and 24 other codefendants were accused of illicitly siphoning European Parliament funds to pay for party employees who seldom or never dealt with affairs in Brussels or Strasbourg. The court estimated that the accused had over 12 years embezzled more than €4 million, €474,000 of which Le Pen was held personally responsible for as an MEP.
The U.S. president’s son Donald Trump Jr., an influential voice in online right-wing circles, also waded in. “France is sending le Pen to jail and barring her from running?! Are they just trying to prove JD Vance was right about everything?” he asked on social media.