![\"French-far-right-leader1\"](\"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/French-far-right-leader1-300x169.jpg\")
AFP, NEW YORK: The far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen visited Donald Trump\u2019s headquarters but left without meeting the US president-elect or any of his staff, aides said Thursday.<\/p>\nAFP, NEW YORK: The far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen visited Donald Trump\u2019s headquarters but left without meeting the US president-elect or any of his staff, aides said Thursday.<\/p>\n
The National Front leader, who has praised Trump, was spotted having coffee at Trump Ice Cream Parlor on the lower-level lobby of Trump Tower with three men including her partner Louis Aliot, the party\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n
Also sighted with Le Pen in the Fifth Avenue skyscraper was George \u201cGuido\u201d Lombardi, an Italian businessman who lives in Trump Tower and whom Politico described as Trump\u2019s \u201cself-professed contact to Europe\u2019s far-right parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by journalists if she was there to meet Trump, Le Pen refused to respond.<\/p>\n
Trump met another prominent European far-right leader, Britain\u2019s top Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, in November, when he was photographed open-mouthed in delight next to a grinning Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is not meeting with anyone from our team,\u201d Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo meetings. It\u2019s a public building,\u201d Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said. Several hours later, friends confirmed that she had left out of public view.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate visit. No statement,\u201d Aliot wrote in a message when asked whether she planned to speak to reporters staked out in the lobby.<\/p>\n
The lobby is a public area, and although police imposed stringent security after Trump\u2019s election on November 8, visitors are free to throng its souvenir shops and cafes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not reach out to the Trump campaign, we did not reach out to Mr Trump even though he is a friend of mine,\u201d Lombardi told reporters.<\/p>\n
Le Pen is gearing up to contest the French presidential election with polls predicting that she will qualify for a second-round run-off in May\u00a0 but ultimately lose to her conservative rival Francois Fillon.<\/p>\n
Lombardi told reporters that Le Pen \u201cjust happened to be here because I happen to live here,\u201d adding that she may travel to Washington on Friday to meet members of Congress.<\/p>\n
He said he had introduced Le Pen to entrepreneurs, businessmen, industrialists and diplomats from the United Nations, whom he described as friends and potential donors, in a private gathering at Trump Tower on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to have a party for her in some restaurant or some open places, so we did a very private event, as I say we had a whole bunch of friends. It just happened to be at Trump Tower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Le Pen was one of the first foreign politicians to congratulate Trump on his surprise victory, which has emboldened far-right politicians across Europe.<\/p>\n
French support for Le Pen has been fueled by anger with elites and concern over migration following jihadist attacks\u2014factors that also boosted backing for Britain\u2019s decision to quit the European Union and Trump\u2019s rise in the United States.<\/p>\n
Like Trump, Le Pen has been a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow has courted the National Front and other populist anti-EU parties. Her party has also accepted funds from a Russian bank.<\/p>\n
Breitbart News, the ultra-conservative site whose former executive chair Steve Bannon is Trump\u2019s chief strategist, has spoken admiringly of Le Pen.<\/p>\n
Describing herself as \u201canti-establishment,\u201d she has worked to try to make the National Front more acceptable to mainstream voters, shedding the overtly anti-Semitic and racist image it had under her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.<\/p>\n
Her platform remains focused on restricting immigration, fighting Islamist fundamentalism and withdrawing France from the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFP, NEW YORK: The far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen visited Donald Trump\u2019s headquarters but left without meeting the US president-elect or any of his staff, aides said Thursday. The National Front leader, who has praised Trump, was spotted having coffee at Trump Ice Cream Parlor on the lower-level lobby of Trump Tower with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n