The Trump administration is considering sanctions against three French magistrates, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel, causing concern within the French judiciary. The judges in question sentenced Marine Le Pen on March 31, 2025, to four years in prison, including two mandatory years, and five years of ineligibility for embezzlement of public funds.
On December 30, 2025, the weekly publication reported on its website anonymous accounts from former US administration officials who said that Washington intends to sanction European magistrates and officials suspected of targeting the far right in France or in Germany. Der Spiegel explicitly cited the case of the three French judges.
“If such claims were proven true or were to materialize,” declared Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban, the president of the Paris judicial court, on January 6 during a session welcoming new magistrates, “they would constitute unacceptable and intolerable interference in our country’s internal affairs, which should provoke condemnation from the public authorities.”
Except every single person would have to then move to cash-only. No more online payments or shopping; it would be like living in the 1980s all of a sudden.
Let’s assume 2/3 of France’s population all have cards and accounts from American processors. That’s about 44mil people. The US alone, on the other hand, has around 229mil (2/3 of current population). Visa would do nothing and just wait it out, because while it would be a blow to lose 44mil customers, they have the US and the rest of the world still using their platform. Meanwhile, the entire country has just imposed “sanctions” upon themselves. Do you think the French government could withstand the growing impatience of their people being forced to use cash for a month? Six months? A year of not being able to pay your bills or shop online?
It would likely take the entire EU banning these processors, and it would take convincing their diverse population that it’s a worthy sacrifice before that. None of that is easy, so I think the easiest path is to heavily fund a speedy buildup of their own processors. Then they can dump Visa and the rest.
In reality, Visa would be forced not to sanction the judges and the US would balk at banning them from the US market. Regardless of how insane and vindictive Trump is, his handlers would force him to back down because punishing a few judges just isn’t worth it.
But France has to play hardball to make that happen.
To be abundantly clear, I’m not arguing that France shouldn’t play hard ball, I’m just pointing out that it’s a complex game of chicken with real consequences just for playing.
I sincerely hope everyone forces Trump to back down whenever the opportunity arises, because every time that happens, he loses credibility as “the strong man” among people who adore him.