A defensive-sounding conservative commentator, Candace Owens, is casting a lawsuit filed against her by President Macron and his wife Brigitte as an assault on the American Constitution.

Ms. Owens claimed on her podcast that the Macrons are saying “F you” to her First Amendment rights with a defamation lawsuit recently filed in the state of Delaware addressing her claim that France’s first lady was born a biological male.

“You have a literal European leader that is basically saying F you to the American Constitution. Right,” she said. “Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte are saying, ‘You know what? We don’t like that podcaster in America, and we are gonna launch a lawsuit that’s never been launched before, an unprecedented lawsuit to impoverish her for speaking.’”

Ms. Owens also appeared miffed that the Trump administration has not spoken out in her defense.

“And both JD Vance and Trump have not issued a statement,” Ms. Owens said on the podcast. “Where are you?”

“If you are Trump, the first thing you should have done, if you purport to care about America and our Constitution as you’re supposed to be the person that’s defending that day in and day out. You would come out and you would say, ‘I don’t even know whether I believe that she’s a man or woman.’”

She said she has spoken directly to Mr. Trump about the matter.

“He could even say, like he said to me on the phone, that, ‘I looked at her real close on the Eiffel Tower, and it looked like a woman to me.’ Okay, you can say all those things, but you should say, ‘It’s unacceptable. I’m a leader of this country, and it is unacceptable that this leader would threaten the First Amendment in any way.’”

The defamation lawsuit, which was filed late last month, accuses Ms. Owens of publishing “outlandish, defamatory, and far-fetched fictions” about the Macrons “to promote her independent platform, gain notoriety, and make money.”

The 218-page legal filing cites multiple theories that Ms. Owens has promoted through her X posts, including claims that Mrs. Macron was originally born male with the name Jean-Michel Trogneux. She does have a brother by that name.

“These claims are demonstrably false, and Owens knew they were false when she published them. Yet, she published them anyway.  And the reason is clear: it is not the pursuit of truth, but the pursuit of fame,” the complaint argues.

Supreme Court precedent holds that defamatory statements are not protected by the Constitution when they are made with “actual malice,” meaning the speaker knew them to be untrue or made them with reckless disregard for the truth.