Marine Le Pen, far-right French presidential candidate and leader of the National Front party, was seen having coffee in the basement of Trump Tower on Thursday.

She did not have a meeting scheduled with President-elect Trump during her visit to his Manhattan building.

Le Pen, who is competing to succeed socialist French President Francois Hollande in May, has expressed her support for Trump in the past.

The National Front leader has helped transform the controversial fringe party of her father — Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the National Front — into a more broadly appealing political movement. Her support for limits on mass immigration and her brand of French populism have prompted parallels with Trump and with similar movements that have emerged in the U.K. and Germany.

Stephen Bannon, Trump's incoming chief strategist, has long favored populist parties in Europe. Trump, too, has praised the rise of right-leaning leaders and policies in the U.K., which stunned political observers when it voted to leave the European Union during the "Brexit" referendum last summer.