President Trump in a new interview refused to comment on whether he thinks Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate for France’s National Front party, should be president.
“No, I have no comment on that,” Trump told The Associated Press Sunday when asked if he thought Le Pen should become France’s next president. Voting in the first round ended Sunday, and Le Pen appears to be one of two contenders to advance.
Trump said he thinks last week’s deadly attack on a police bus in Paris will help Le Pen.
“I think that it’ll probably help her because she is the strongest on borders and she is the strongest on what’s been going on in France,” he added.
Trump made clear that his comments about Le Pen’s border policies did not amount to an endorsement.
{mosads}“I believe whoever is the toughest on radical Islamic terrorism and whoever is the toughest at the borders will do well at the election,” he told The AP. “I am not saying that person is going to win, she is not even favored to win, you know. Right now, she is in second place.”
Trump has often been compared to Le Pen. Both have taken hard-line stances on immigration and have criticized the NATO alliance, though Trump has recently said he is now committed to its success.
Following last week’s deadly shooting, Trump said the attack would “probably help” Le Pen in the election.
The president in the Sunday AP interview doubled down on that statement, telling the reporter that he thinks the attack “will have a big effect on who people are going to vote for in the election.”
Le Pen, according to early election projections, is expected to advance to the May 7 runoff against center-left candidate Emmanuel Macron of the En Marche! party.