This far-right influencer is too crazy even for Trump

Far -right influencer Candace Owens has descended a tireless rabbit so deep that you almost expect it to appear in Australia. In fact, it is so deep that even President Donald Trump would have told him to go back.

For years, Owens has been consumed by a singular fixation: persuading the world that Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, is secretly a man.

“After examining this, I would put all my professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is actually a man”, Owens Posted on X In March 2024. “I do not intend to release this story and I call other journalists to examine this explosive story and to report accordingly.”

Imagine thinking that this is relevant for anything, even less an “explosive” question.

The origins of the conspiracy are in marginal online spaces which have affirmed for years, without proof, that Brigitte Macron was born the men under the name of Jean-Michel Trogninous, a name that belongs to his brother. Owens has impatiently amplified the lie to its nearly 7 million followers on X and more than 4.5 million followers on YouTube, where it produced a series of videos entitled “Become Brigitte”. The first French family has repeatedly sought to withdraw the equipment, but Owens ignored them.

Having enough, macrons continued Owens for defamation In a Delaware court on July 23.

“Owens dissected their appearance, their marriage, their friends, their family and their personal history – while achieving themselves in a grotesque story designed to ignite and deteriorate,” said the trial. “The result is relentless intimidation worldwide. Whenever macrons leave their house, they do it knowing that countless people have heard, and many believe, these vile manufacturing. It is invasive, dehumanizing and deeply unfair. ”

If Owens had a substance to his claims, it would be his moment to shine. Truth is a defense in a defamation case, and the discovery process would give it the possibility of digging up the evidence it would need to prove its point. But that would require a real continuation of the truth, something that Owens – and the rest of his conservative colleagues – is not interested.

Instead, adding to the overall oddity of the episode, she called Trump to bail out her, and her silence led his absolutely crazy.

You have a literal European leader who essentially says “do you act” to the American Constitution, right? Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte say: “You know what, we do not like this podcaster in America, and we will launch a trial which has never been launched before, an unprecedented trial, to impoverish it to speak.” And both [Vice President] JD Vance and Trump did not publish a statement.

In fact, where journalists even ask them to make a declaration, agree? A head of state – a head of state speaks of your constituent and launches a trial and says that they will impoverish them for having executed a right of first amendment. Where are you? If you are Trump, the first thing you should have done, if you pretend to worry about America and our Constitution … You go out and you would say: “I don’t even know if I think he is a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter ” – directly?

It is particularly rich for Owens to expect Trump, of all people, suddenly cares about the first amendment. He continued press organizations on the left and right to publish the truth about him. He added Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his administration, someone who really has continued this site To try to overcome our community from its protections from the first amendment. (We especially wonAlthough the case is still pending on appeal before a New York Court of Appeal.)

And then there is Brendan Carr, the head of Trump of the Federal Communication Commission. Carr may be the The greatest opponent of the first amendment To serve in a presidential administration from the Richard Nixon era. It was the guy who apparently threatened CBS in Cancel Stephen Colbert’s showStunning: “The American people simply do not trust the consumer media, and for the broadcasters – once again different from cables, different from the podcasts – for the broadcasters, they have a federal license, and they are forced to operate in the public interest. And since we start to see changes, I think it’s a good thing. ”

Carr has long defended the use of federal licenses as a political weapon against the media that he and his allies do not like – a direct attack on press freedom. In his hands, “the public interest” becomes all that the party in power says, transforming dissemination licenses into loyalty tests and frightening dissent. It is the same kind of government that has exceeded the conservatives Doctrine of equity Targeted them, but they have now redesigned like a unilateral cake for their own advantage.

Second, the Constitution does not protect defamatory discourse. As a public personality, Brigitte Macron faces a higher bar to win her case – as a public figure, she will have to show maliciousnessOr a “reckless contempt” for the truth – but that does not protect Owens from the trial itself. And it is a solid bet that macrons can erase this bar, given Owens’ clean contempt for the truth.

Finally, why would Owens think that Trump or Vance would go to his aid? The two don’t care about anyone other than themselves, and she brought this entirely to herself. She even admitted to her podcast that Trump had told her directly, saying: “I looked at her very close in the Eiffel Tower, and that looked like a woman for me.” According to Owens, the President of the United States told her that it was full of it – which Macron’s lawyers absolutely like – and she ignored it while asking for his help.

What does she expect, Trump declares war on France on his behalf?

Even the British right commentator Piers Morgan did not support it.

“You were dupped”, he told him on his show. “Worse, you should know that this is not true, but you have set up the wave of conspiracy theory on this subject because it was so lucrative.”

Owens went to seek a war, and now she is shocked to find herself on the battlefield alone.