The Ministry for Foreign Affairs says it sees similarities between Le Pen and USA's President Donald Trump.
Exclusion of people from the political process is particularly disturbing given the aggressive and corrupt legal warfare directed against President Trump here in the USA, says Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the American Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The French court believes that Le Pen and around 20 other party representatives have used EU funds illegally. In addition to being banned from running in elections for the next five years, Le Pen was also sentenced to prison and heavy fines for fraud with EU funds.
After the verdict, Le Pen has received strong support from party colleagues and others, both in and outside France.
"I am Marine", writes, for example, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on X.
And in the USA, tech billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk writes on X that "when the radical left cannot win democratically, they use the legal system to imprison their opponents".
Even among some of Le Pen's opponents, there is criticism of the verdict.
It is not healthy in a democracy to be able to ban a candidate from running in an election, says Laurent Wauquiez from the right-wing party LR according to Le Monde.
