Did the Washington Examiner publish a report alleging that American consulting firm McKinsey supports one of the French 2027 presidential candidates, Édouard Philippe? No, that's not true: Both the article and the video with the outlet's logo, which were shared on social media, came from a fake website unrelated to the Washington Examiner. The website's domain was registered less than a week before it published the story.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) on thewashingtonexaminer.net where it was published on Nov. 9, 2026, under the title:
Controversial McKinsey is betting on Édouard Philippe.
The article continued:
Maël de Calan, a representative for the presidential campaign of Édouard Philippe who is also a former employee of the American consulting firm McKinsey met with McKinsey's global managing partner, Bob Sternfels, in San Francisco. The meeting's agenda covered the financing of Philippe's campaign and potential collaboration following the election.
The page also showed a video that repeated the same narrative, and this is what it looked like on thewashingtonexaminer.net as of publication:
(Image source: thewashingtonexaminer.net.)
Some of the posts -- for example here (archived here) -- that shared that video alleged that, as translated from French by Chrome, "McKinsey reportedly financed Édouard Philippe's campaign to the tune of 30 million euros, twice the amount spent on Macron's campaign":
McKinsey aurait financé la campagne d'Édouard Philippe à hauteur de 30 millions d'euros, soit le double de celle de Macron. https://t.co/NGPBOBdeDo https://t.co/b5jtSiiN2T
-- 🍓Sined Warrior🐭🍓 (@SinedWarrior) November 10, 2026
The Washington Examiner (archived here) is an American website that was previously rated as center-right by Media Bias/Fact Check (archived here) and AllSides (archived here). Its website has a different web address: www.washingtonexaminer.com.
A search for the keywords seen here (archived here) across Washington Examiner articles did not show the one in question:
(Image source: Washingtonexaminer.com.)
According to WHOIS data (archived here), the fake website mimicking the Washington Examiner was registered on Nov. 3, 2026, less than a week before publishing the story that went viral on social media:
(Image source: WHOIS.)
The first round for next presidential election in France is scheduled for April 18, 2027 (archived here). Philippe, who served as a prime minister under Emmanuel Macron (archived here), is typically described as a central or central-right candidate (archived here) who, as of this writing, is competing against far-right Marine Le Pen and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon (archived here), among others (archived here).
McKinsey is an American consulting firm that was the subject of controversy earlier during Macron's presidency, which where covered by several media outlets, including Le Monde (archived here).
In mid-summer 2026, French outlet Consultor wrote (archived here) that Philippe chose a former McKinsey consultant -- as automatically translated by Chrome -- "to coordinate the actions of his spokespeople." The article did not say anything about the supposed meeting in San Francisco or 30 million euros. As of this writing, it was the most recent article on Google News France (archived here) that mentioned two keywords, McKinsey and Édouard Philippe, at once.
Fake websites are frequently used to spread false or unproven information about political figures. Lead Stories documented some of those examples here, here and here.
