Are there still Trumpists in French politics? It seems a long time ago that Marine Le Pen’s party, still known as the Front National applauded Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, seeing it as humus for his presidential campaign the following year. How even more distant seems the time when the French right as a whole naturally identified with successive Republican candidates and the French left supported Democratic candidates. On this side of the Atlantic, old cleavages have exploded as, on the other side of the ocean, the view of Trump’s personality has broken free from conventional political reading grids.

Eight years ago, the businessman who had entered politics already stood out for his style and the radicalism of his positions. But, because he was criticized by the elites and opposed by the arts and media, he appeared first and foremost as an “anti-system” candidate, a label…