Far-right French politician Marine Le Pen was spotted Thursday morning inside Trump Tower with the co-founder of Citizens for Trump, an independent group backing the President-elect.
Transition pool reporters first spotted Le Pen, the leader of the French political party National Front, on Trump Tower’s ground floor. A subsequent pool report identified the man sitting to Le Pen’s right as Guido “George” Lombardi, who the Citizens for Trump website describes as “Co-Founder, National Liaison, Press Correspondent.” Citizens for Trump later confirmed on its Facebook page that Lombardi had met with Le Pen.
Trump transition spokeswoman Hope Hicks told a pool reporter Le Pan was “not meeting with anyone from our team.” Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer also told CNN’s Noah Gray that Le Pen was not scheduled to meet with Trump or anyone on his transition team.
“Trump Tower is open to the public,” he added, according to Gray.
Le Pen’s chief of staff told Bloomberg Politics that she had traveling in a private capacity to New York City. Lombardi lives in Trump Tower, and was described in a Politico Europe article last year as “Trump’s European fixer.”
Le Pen is an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s, saying in September, “We are similar because we are not part of the establishment, we are not part of the system, and we do not depend on anybody and we don’t take orders from anyone.”
In November, she sent congratulations to Trump “and to the free American people!” on his electoral victory.
Pool reporter Samuel Levine snapped a couple of photos of Le Pen:
