Former US president Donald Trump has told French-Jewish far-right presidential challenger Eric Zemmour, whose nationalist program is shaping a divisive campaign race, to stay strong and true to his convictions, Zemmour said.Zemmour’s campaign team said the two had a 40-minute phone call late Monday. Like Trump, Zemmour has positioned himself as a political outsider, banking instead on his celebrity status and no-nonsense language.“He told me to remain who I am, that the media would call me brutal but that what mattered was to stay true to myself,” Zemmour told reports on Tuesday.Zemmour, 63, has said France needs saving from a downward spiral he blames largely on what he describes as unfettered immigration and the increasing influence of Islam on French society. He holds several convictions for inciting racial hate.
Zemmour said he told Trump that both their countries faced a “battle of civilizations.” “We share the same ideas, namely that the United States should remain the United States and France should remain France,” he added. The two discussed immigration, security and their countries’ respective economies, Zemmour’s campaign team said in a statement.Trump’s 2016 presidential run is often cited as a blueprint for the campaign of Zemmour, a writer and polemicist who wants to unite the far-right and staunchly conservative voters who have traditionally voted for the mainstream center-right.