The Macrons, the Maga influencer and the 'trans' Brigitte conspiracy: US judge to hear lawsuit

The French first couple will face rightwing commentator Candace Owens in a Delaware court after her bizarre CIA claims

- Stephen Armstrong & Ada Barumé

You would think the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has enough drama in his life at the moment.

His country is in the grip of a political crisis, partly of his own making. His government has collapsed three times in the past year, barely surviving a vote of no confidence last week. He is trying to play a central role in bolstering support for Ukraine, while also pushing for Palestinian statehood as part of a wider Middle East peace plan.

And yet he is also fighting a more personal battle on another front. In the US state of Delaware, he is suing a conservative influencer in what is either the strangest legal case in political history, a last-ditch attempt to uphold the rules-based order or an unseemly legal brawl.

He will be facing Candace Owens, a rightwing Maga - Make America Great Again - commentator who courts controversy in a way that makes US podcaster Joe Rogan seem like a BBC Radio 2 presenter. The central allegation? Owens has been spreading a conspiracy theory to her more than 5 million YouTube subscribers alleging that Brigitte, Macron's wife, is transgender.

Owens's rise through the pro-Donald Trump media has long ruffled feathers. She made her name as a black woman opposing Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement and with her campaign for "Blexit", a call for black Americans to stop voting Democrat and support Trump.

She later joined the pro-Trump Daily Wire, a media company run by rightwing activist Ben Shapiro, hosting an eponymous chatshow from 2021, before Shapiro fired her three years later over antisemitic comments. Soon after, she launched her own YouTube show and started building a business based on interviews with "cancelled" names.