The Trump administration has a big bet on Europe's tough rights.
At a meeting of European leaders in Munich on Friday, US Vice President JD Vance will deliver the equivalent of a campaign speech against the German sitting government a week before anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim elections. This surprised the room. AFD is set to be second place.
Just as Vance accused foreign leaders of restraining freedom of speech, halting illegal migration, and running for fear of the true beliefs of voters, the whispers of “Jesus Christ” and the cry in the chair. I was able to listen to it in the overflow room.
Hours later he met with AFD leader Alice Weidel and broke the taboo of German politics called “The Firewall Against the Far Right.” Ruling party coalition.
“It's very controversial for him,” said Christine Bergina, managing director of Geographic Strategy North at the German Marshall Fund, who attended the Security Conference in Munich.
Supporting Vance, or Elon Musk, who recently gave a video address at the AFD Party Summit, is unlikely to tilt the outcome of the German election, Berzina said. And it's rare to raise eyebrows at the dominant Christian Democratic coalition that should win next week's vote to allow the AFD to enter the coalition.
But the US under Trump is looking at wider changes in Europe. The rise of populist parties that share an anti-immigrant and isolationist worldview and join the United States in attacks on globalism and liberal values. They see their leaders in Hungary's Victor Orban, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, and France's British Reform Party and Marine Le Pen.
“It's personal and political in terms of far-right political integrity,” she said. “It also opens the door to other unprecedented things regarding the US hand in European politics.”
Could the US President even threaten serious policy changes such as tariffs based on the inadequate German Union? “That would normally be unthinkable,” she said in response to the question. “But in 2025 there's very little that can't be thought of.”
Trump has insisted on a broader order, despite winning popularity votes with fewer margins than US leaders since the early 2000s. And he is trying to remake politics at home and redefine US relations with overseas allies. Many of them attacked him personally in the wake of the January 6th rebellion and his second presidential election.
Vance also wanted to oppose European leaders on Friday. He refused to meet with German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, who should be a major US partner in negotiations with Russia about the future of the war in Ukraine. “We don't need to meet him. He's not the prime minister,” one former US official told Politico about Vance Team's approach.
It speaks to the trends in the Trump administration's thinking. That means overseas voters will deal with things that he can't negotiate and alliance. When surprised the European elite on Friday, Vance told them, “If you're running for fear of your voters, there's nothing America can do for you.”
“We need democratic obligations to achieve something valuable over the next few years,” he said.
This is what Vladimir Putin, who had been waiting for the Trump administration to return for years, is well aware of his war in Ukraine. Sometimes you have to keep your time until the situation gets right.
And it was Trump's intimateness about Ukrainian Voldy Mie Zelensky, as he supported a plan to end the war through negotiations to give up Kiev's design on NATO membership.
“He's going to have to do what he has to do,” Trump said Zelenskyy agreed to the deal. “But as you know, his poll count isn't particularly high.”
