Trumped Up

Elisabeth Zerofsky attributes Marine Le Pen’s recent successes [“Front Runner,” Letter from France, May] to the current political vacuum in France — and rightly so. A populist demagogue such as Le Pen — or Donald Trump in the United States — benefits from the perceived incompetence and aloofness of the ruling elites. And distrust for the political establishment in both countries has never been higher, particularly among lower-middle-class white voters who have seen their jobs outsourced and their benefits squeezed, while the economic prospects of their children shrink to nothing.

It is far from certain, however, that Marine Le Pen will…