Often brought back to its Putin sympathies, the National Rally (RN) does not forget to cultivate its Trumpist networks. In September 2021, while a parliamentary committee was dissecting the role of Donald Trump in the assault on the Capitol on January 6 of the same year, two MEPs from the RN met the most radical elected Republicans, during a trip organized by advisers to the former president and paid for by European RN funds.

The details of this trip are known thanks to the publication, on November 11, of the declarations of registration (“registration statement”) of the political communications company Logan Circle, founded by an executive of Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns. Spotted by Intelligence Online, these documents summarize all the services paid by the Identity and Democracy (ID) parliamentary group – in which the elected representatives of the RN sit in the European Parliament – ​​at Logan Circle in 2021, for the sum of 72,720 dollars (70,000 euros), plus 16 $194 in onsite expenses. This is the only European contract for this agency with a strong Trumpist tint.

The services consisted of the writing of four newsletters for American media, media monitoring, the organization of trips by elected officials from the RN to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the meeting of American conservatives, and travel by Jérôme Rivière and Nicolas Bay in September 2021. Two RN executives in the European Parliament: the first was then president of the French delegation of ID, the second vice-president of the group. The two parliamentarians, who joined Eric Zemmour in 2022 for the presidential campaign, never made a secret of this trip to Washington and Arizona, organized by Jérôme Rivière.

The talented team at LCG was hard at work going above and beyond for our clients in 2021. Check it out yourself an… https://t.co/scyGbjIPkI

—LoganCircleGrp (@LoganCircle Group)

They claim that, if the party did not have to validate this stay, it was not blamed for it despite the smell of sulfur given off by Donald Trump and his troops at the time. “The trip was part of a continuity of relations with the Trumpist networks which has never been denied”, emphasizes Nicolas Bay. They were accompanied by Thibaut François, the man of international relations for the RN in the European Parliament, elected deputy for the North during the legislative elections in June. Mr. François, mentioned as interlocutor of Logan Circle, denies any “legal power in this displacement”, and recalls that Jérôme Rivière was the signatory. The latter points out that the contract was prepared by the administration of the ID group and validated by the office.

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