The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: The Left Couldn’t Throw Trump in Jail. Marine Le Pen Wasn’t So Lucky

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Is Europe really the “stalwart” of democracy? While the radical Left in America failed to imprison President Donald Trump, their Europeans counterparts are having a successful time prosecuting their political enemies, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:” “Europe is copying the lawfare of the United States. Remember that Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, and E. Jean Carroll, in civil and criminal suits, for four years tried to destroy Donald Trump. And they had over $400 million in fines that were leveled at one point. And there were 91 felony indictments… “Ms. Le Pen, the head of the most conservative party in France, who has got enormous momentum. Enormous momentum, because, of the violence of radical Islamic groups, inside France. The open borders, the dissatisfaction with the blank check, given Ukraine, etc., I could go on and on… “[The high court] said that she had expropriate funds, campaign funds. In other words, that she was blending—does this sounds familiar—blending her own campaign with funds allotted from the European Union, for other purposes. In other words, there was a difference—a distinction without a difference. “In other words, they only applied this law to her because they were terrified she was going to win, in the next presidential election.” Watch the full epsiode now! Link in show notes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca. slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. There's two things that ring true about Europeans and their relationship to us Americans. Number one, they never feel or they never admit that they're emulated. They admit they're affected by the ill effects they think of America, but they're not influenced by us. And number two, they're the stalwarts of democracy. We have these pathologies of swinging hard to the right or loopholes or anti-democratic or mega fanatics, but the Europeans are Pristine Democrats were told and they're independent of America. But something's happened that belies those two allegations or assumptions.

Suddenly, Europe is copying the lawfare of the United States. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. There's two things that ring true about Europeans and their relationship to us Americans. Number one, they never feel or they never admit that they're emulated. They admit they're affected by the ill effects they think of America, but they're not influenced by us. And number two, they're the stalwarts of democracy. We have these pathologies of swinging hard to the right or we're yokels or we're anti-democratic or we're mega fanatics. But the Europeans are pristine Democrats, we're told, and they're independent of America.

But something's happened that belies those two allegations or assumptions. Number one, suddenly Europe is copying the lawfare of the United States. Remember that Latita James, Alvin Bragg, Fannie Willis, Jack Smith, and E. Jean Carroll in civil and criminal suits for four years tried to destroy Donald Trump. They had over $400 million in fines that were leveled at one point. And there were 91 felony indictments. I think Alvin Bragg actually convicted him of 32. This was in addition to trying to remove him off the ballot in 20 states and raiding his home. So the Europeans wouldn't do that, would they?

The second thing is that this was a destruction or an attempt to warp democracy, not to let Donald Trump be on the ballot, to put him behind jail. So let me just tell you what's going on in Europe. In February, this conservative, which is usually in the media term, a hard-right, far-right group in Germany, the alternative for Deutschland, the alternative for Germany, it won 21% of the vote. It's skyrocketed in some areas of East Germany at 140. Whether you like it or not, it represents democracy. A lot of people are fed up with German energy policy, German immigration policy, German social policy. German social policy, radical environmentalism. And what did the Germans do?

They immediately said, even though they have 152 seats in their parliament, the second largest, no party, no left-wing, right-wing, centrist party, will make an alliance with them to get a majority of seats under a parliamentary democracy to run the government. In other words, even though they had the greatest increase in their popularity, they were ostracized because somebody said, declared them unfit, even though they had a mandate of the people to be the second most representative party of Germany.

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We'd love to talk, business. In March, in Romania, a kind of an obscure conservative right-wing candidate came out of nowhere, Mr. George Setscu, and he, in the first round, he came in at the top. And he was predicted, this May, that he might be the elected prime minister. of Romania. And what happened? They declared him on fit. They said that he was, is this sound familiar, colluding with Vladimir Putin, Putin's puppet, and therefore they removed him from further consideration. They took him off the ballot. And there was no Supreme Court above that court, as there was in the United States, that said, you can't do that. So he's off the ballot. He can't be even considered,

even though he was the largest vote getter. And then we come to this week's news that Ms. Le Pen, the head of the most conservative party in France, who has got enormous momentum, enormous momentum because of the violence of radical Islamic groups inside France, the open borders, the dissatisfaction with the blank check given Ukraine. I could go on and on.

many of the same problems that we're dealing here, the far-left agenda. It was probably scheduled to get more votes than anybody, and she had a pretty good chance in three or four years to replace Mr. Macron. And the High Court did what? They said that she had expropriated funds, campaign funds. In other words, that she was blending, does this sound so familiar, blending her own campaign with funds allotted from the European Union for other purposes. In other words, there was a distinction without a difference. In other words, they only applied this law to her because they were terrified she was going to win in the next presidential election.

But that wasn't the end. Does this sound familiar? Then they disguised the court without a jury sentenced her to four years in prison, two years under house arrest. maybe two years suspended, so they're going to take her out of the political atmosphere. Is that sound familiar? What am I getting at? Given all these lectures we're getting from Europeans about the pristine nature of democracy there and our bastardized form here, they have essentially, in three major countries in Europe,

eliminated any alternative to the orthodox left-wing socialist norm because they feared it was going to win. They always thought they were a fringe group, but now they think they're going to win, so they're de facto gone, the candidates. And second, they're copying the left-wing chapter and verse of the United States. They saw what they did to Donald Trump, and they said, that is a good thing to do, we can do better.

and they have done better, where they were unable to destroy Trump and only made him stronger the more they tried to destroy him, the Europeans succeeded. So how ironic that we are the bastions of democracy, at least we ward off threats to it in a way that's far more effective than the so-called Guardians of Democracy in Europe. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily City. Thank you for watching today's podcast. For more news like that, subscribe to the Daily Signal. Maybe you can check out my own website at victorhansson.com for podcast, lectures,

ultra-series behind a paywall, but more importantly, just daily columns that are accessible and free to everyone. Thank you very much.