BRUSSELS — If Jordan Bardella becomes France’s next president, don’t expect him to be Donald Trump’s man in Europe.

The 30-year-old leader of France’s far-right National Rally — and the favorite to replace Marine Le Pen if she is barred from running in 2027 — sought during a 45-minute exclusive interview with POLITICO to put distance between himself and the U.S. president he once openly admired.

Trump’s behavior is “not only erratic but also extremely unsteady and constantly shifting,” said Bardella in the interview, which will be released in its entirety Monday. Asked how he views the American president, he said: “It depends on the day. There’s a Monday attitude, a Tuesday attitude, a Wednesday attitude.”

Bardella also rejected a potential endorsement from Trump, who has attempted to influence elections in Hungary, Poland and Argentina by backing leaders who align with his politics. 

“The support we’re seeking with Marine Le Pen is that of the French people, the support of French voters,” he said. “We don’t need to accept or open the door to any form of interference.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The remarks highlight a growing dilemma for Europe’s nationalist right. While many of its leaders share Trump’s views on immigration and national identity, they are uneasy about his approach to allies, trade and European security.

“The support we’re seeking with Marine Le Pen is that of the French people, the support of French voters,” he said. | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images

That shift is especially striking coming from Bardella. In March 2024, ahead of Trump’s reelection, Bardella told POLITICO that his “heart leans toward Trump.” In December 2025, when he was asked on French television what he wanted to ask the U.S. president, he replied with a soft laugh: “Where does he get all this energy?” 

Young, telegenic and popular on TikTok, the National Rally leader has helped transform a party once regarded as a political outcast into France’s most powerful opposition force. Polls suggest he could enter the Élysée Palace in 2027 if Le Pen’s conviction for embezzlement prevents her from running.

If elected, Bardella would lead Europe’s second-largest economy, one of NATO’s most powerful militaries and the European Union’s only nuclear power.

Yet rather than embracing Trump, Bardella is warning that Europe must prepare for a future in which Washington is no longer willing to guarantee the continent’s security. “The Americans are allies, and they will remain so,” he said. “But they are allies who no longer intend to come to Europe’s rescue or to remain the umbrella and protector of European countries.”

“President Trump’s second term is very significantly different from the first,” he added, noting Trump was “harder to read.” Washington, he said, now views itself as “an empire” with a sphere of influence in the Western hemisphere. “It is threatening to Europe in the sense that it impacts many European countries — not France, but many European countries — with this fear of the United States of America’s disengagement.”

Waiting in the wings

Bardella isn’t his party’s first choice as candidate. 

Marine Le Pen — the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Rally’s late founder — has run in the past three elections. But if her conviction for embezzlement is upheld by an appeals court in July, the 57-year-old political veteran will be unable to stand, leaving the door open for her protégé.

Young, telegenic and popular on TikTok, the National Rally leader has helped transform a party once regarded as a political outcast into France’s most powerful opposition force. | Esmeralda Wijangco for POLITICO

With his polished style, Bardella has been instrumental in helping Le Pen bring the far-right party into the mainstream and appeal to younger French voters. A child of an Italian mother and a father of Italian origins, he grew up in a working-class suburb north of Paris. In April, he went public with his relationship with Maria Carolina de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles, an Italian princess and influencer. 

Bardella, who has been the National Rally’s president since 2022, contributed to the softening of the party’s pro-Kremlin image by repaying a loan the party had taken from a Russian bank when it was struggling to obtain domestic financing. Last year, he canceled a speech at CPAC, the annual gathering of American conservatives, over what he described as a “gesture alluding to Nazi ideology” performed on stage by Steve Bannon. 

He remains, however, an anti-immigration hardliner. “There are many people in Europe who are extremely unhappy to see France weakened, to see France stunted, to see France submerged by massive immigration that profoundly changes its identity and values,” he told POLITICO.

Bardella acknowledged his stance on the issue aligns with the Trump administration, which unveiled a new U.S. National Security Strategy in December that described migration policies as one of the largest threats facing Europe and pledged to support “patriotic parties” that felt the same.

“The diagnosis regarding the situation of major insecurity and out-of-control migration policy is our own,” said Bardella. “I’m not going to tell you otherwise just because foreigners think the same.” 

Uneasy allies

It’s not unusual for French politicians to keep their distance from the U.S. Suspicion toward Washington is a long-running French political tradition. In the 1960s, then-President Charles de Gaulle withdrew from NATO’s integrated command and built the country’s own nuclear arsenal. 

With his polished style, Bardella has been instrumental in helping Le Pen bring the far-right party into the mainstream. | Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images

The far-right leader cited De Gaulle’s move as the reason why France was not threatened by doubts over Washington’s commitment to coming to Europe’s defense. “We must thank General de Gaulle for having prevented France from hosting American bases because it is precisely thanks to this fact that we remain a free country,” he said. 

Bardella’s distancing puts him in alignment with other hard-right leaders, such as Italy’s Giorgia Meloni or Germany’s Alice Weidel, who once sought to keep close ties to the Trump administration. Earlier this year, then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received public backing from U.S. Vice President JD Vance — only to lose his reelection bid shortly after. 

The distancing also sets Bardella apart from the National Rally’s main far-right rival: Eric Zemmour, the leader of the Reconquest party, who is far behind in the polls and has embraced the MAGA movement.  

Bardella added he would like France to replace the U.S. as a provider of European security — or at least of its weapons. We need to “allow powers that are a bit bewildered by the United States — and who no longer understand the comings and goings of the American president, particularly on defense — to be able to find in the French defense industry a backup option,” he said.

He also criticized the U.S.-EU trade deal signed by the European Commission last summer as “economic, financial and industrial vassalization.” 

“The Americans will remain allies, but we must be able — as President Trump does with the United States of America — to defend our interests,” he said.

Josh Berlinger contributed to this report.