--- title: Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded Like a French Trump at CPAC description: Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a rising star in the French far-right movement, drew parallels between her worldview and President Donald Trump's. canonical: https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-22T18:26:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:36.114Z article:section: Politics og:title: French Far-Right Leader Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded a Lot Like Trump at CPAC og:description: "I want France first for the French people" og:url: https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291f9d1ff4a6f803/698928944ee2622be6310fa5/marion-marechal-le-pen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: Marion Marechal-Le Pen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: French Far-Right Leader Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded a Lot Like Trump at CPAC twitter:description: "I want France first for the French people" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291f9d1ff4a6f803/698928944ee2622be6310fa5/marion-marechal-le-pen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # French Far-Right Leader Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded a Lot Like Trump at CPAC > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7cccb833-ab74-4c73-aee6-ebddf67a833a&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre Speaks About Gun Control At CPAC [Watch (HLS stream): NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre Speaks About Gun Control At CPAC](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i2VT5Kw0.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2018-02-22. Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday that politicians and the media are exploiting the deadly Florida school shooting to expand gun control._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 22, 2018 6:26 PM UTC  French far-right National Front (FN) party former member of parliament Marion Marechal-Le Pen speaks during the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxen Hill, Maryland, on February 22, 2018 French far-right National Front (FN) party former member of parliament Marion Marechal-Le Pen speaks during the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxen Hill, Maryland, on February 22, 2018 JIM WATSON - AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 22, 2018 6:26 PM UTC Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a rising star in the French far-right movement, drew explicit parallels between her worldview and President Donald Trump’s when she took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. “I’m not offended when I hear President Donald Trump say ‘America first,'” Maréchal-Le Pen said Thursday. “In fact, I want America first for the American people, I want Britain first for the British people, and I want France first for the French people.” Maréchal-Le Pen, 28, is the niece of French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, and known to be more socially conservative than her aunt, [the _Guardian_ reports](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/20/marion-marechal-le-pen-to-share-stage-us-conservatives-front-national). She’s a former member of the French parliament and announced last year that she was taking a break from politics. But Thursday she returned to the political stage, at least in America. CPAC 2018 is a rowdy, public display of the Republican identity crisis, [TIME’s Phil Elliott writes](http://time.com/5169538/cpac-conservative-political-action-conference-republican-crisis/#d70876f5-3b56-4489-8eba-49cadc10bd3a). And Maréchal-Le Pen’s presence is a prime example. Last year, CPAC struggled to grapple with the rise of the alt-right, [kicking out white nationalist Richard Spencer](http://time.com/4681503/donald-trump-cpac-conservatives-alt-right/) from the event and canceling right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos as a keynote speaker. But the alt-right in America rose as a movement against traditional American conservatism, inspired more by the European far-right. So bringing budding French Front National leader Maréchal-Le Pen shows CPAC hasn’t fully grappled with divides in conservatism. Maréchal-Le Pen spoke of needing to fight for the “survival” of France under the European Union; mention of the EU drew boos from the audience. And she hit many similar themes about nationalism that Trump did on the campaign trail, decrying political correctness and an influx of immigrants to her country. “This is not the France that our grandparents fought for,” she said. “Just like you, we want our country back.” Maréchal-Le Pen approvingly cited Trump’s victory in America as evidence that her strain of conservatism can win back France, too. The 2016 American election showed that “when the people are given the opportunity to take their country back,” she said, “they will seize it.” ## Transcript Just a week ago, we were all horrified by another terrible tragedy at an American school. Each and every member of the National Rifle Association mourns the loss of the innocent, and continues to keep their families, and that community In our prayers. We share a goal of safe schools, safe neighborhoods, and a safe country. It's not a safety issue, it's a political issue. They care more about control and more of it. Their goal is to eliminate the second amendment. Their solution is to make you, all of you, less free. They wanna sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of America's mental health system. And even the unbelievable failure of the FBI. Do we really love our money and our celebrities more than we love our children? No. Can we answer that question honestly? Any of us, can we answer that question honestly. Knowing that we surround and protect so much with armed security. While we drop our kids off at schools that are so- called gun- free zones that are wide- open targets for any crazy madmen, bent on evil, to come there first. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/"},"headline":"French Far-Right Leader Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded a Lot Like Trump at CPAC","datePublished":"2018-02-22T18:26:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:36.114Z","description":"\"I want France first for the French people\"","url":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/","keywords":["France","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291f9d1ff4a6f803/698928944ee2622be6310fa5/marion-marechal-le-pen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291f9d1ff4a6f803/698928944ee2622be6310fa5/marion-marechal-le-pen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Marion Marechal-Le Pen","caption":"Marion Marechal-Le Pen","creditText":"JIM WATSON - AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/france/","name":"France"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/","name":"French Far-Right Leader Marion Maréchal-Le Pen Sounded a Lot Like Trump at CPAC"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre Speaks About Gun Control At CPAC","description":"Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday that politicians and the media are exploiting the deadly Florida school shooting to expand gun control.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/i2VT5Kw0/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-02-22T16:52:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i2VT5Kw0.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/","duration":"PT1M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5170730/marion-marechal-le-pen-cpac/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```