June 6, 2026

ThecentreCZ via Wikimedia Commons and Gage Skidmore via Flickr

The AfD’s New Transatlantic Network

AGI

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Building a Smarter German-American Partnership

Tracking the AfD’s Engagement with the United States

As the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained support domestically—exemplified by 20.8 percent of the vote in the 2025 Bundestag election—they have also sought to expand their international networks. Their contact with other right-wing movements, parties, and media figures allows them to develop and amplify far-right messaging; the AfD has also used such efforts as a legitimizing force for their policies at home. Especially following Donald Trump’s inauguration as the forty-seventh president, the AfD’s visits to the United States and engagement with the administration and wider MAGA movement have intensified. Such international networking with the United States is reshaping transatlantic relations, even building a new alternative transatlantic relationship with profound potential policy impacts. To better understand these networks, AGI is following AfD politicians’ professional visits to the United States and with U.S. officials—many of which are little known, barely announced in advance, and not organized through the normal channels.

Benjamin Mennerich, representative of the AfD parliamentary group in Hamburg, and Arnulf Fröhlich, district spokesman for AfD Stormarn, organized an event with a delegation of Young Republicans and Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein members of the AfD’s youth wing, Generation Deutschland, at the Hamburg City Hall. They discussed education policy and the past, present, and future of transatlantic relations. New York Young Republican Club president Stefano Forte spoke to the meeting virtually.

Figures from the MAGA movement and members of the AfD attended a “Remigration Summit” in May 2026, organized by Austrian far-right and Identitarian figure Martin Sellner. Former U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino was a featured speaker, and the AfD’s Björn Höcke delivered virtual remarks. Also in attendance were New York Young Republican Club president Stefano Forte, AfD Member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk, AfD Member of the Brandenburg Landtag, and AfD Member of the North Rhine-Westphalia Landtag Sven Tritschler, as well as far-right influencers, activists, and politicians from across Europe. In a video posted on X, Kay Gottschalk and Gregory Bovino discussed what Germany could learn from U.S. deportation policies, with MdB Gottschalk suggesting that he should invite Bovino to talk about remigration in the German Bundestag.

Stefano Forte, executive director of the conservative 1776 political action committee and president of the New York Republican Club, spoke at an AfD event in the Reichstag building entitled “German-American Relations, the Transformation of the World Order, and Freedom of Speech.” MdB Markus Frohnmaier chaired the meeting, and MdBs Stefan Keuter and Beatrix von Storch offered opening remarks. Politico reported that David Goldman, senior advisor in the Policy Planning Staff of the US State Department, and Ian Campbell, a member of the political section of the U.S. embassy in Berlin, also attended a dinner with the AfD following the event.

Markus Frohnmaier was a featured speaker on a panel about freedom of speech at Turning Point Action’s Alliance of Sovereign Nations conference, which was chaired by U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna. Other AfD politicians in attendance included Sven Tritschler (Member of the Landtag, North Rhine-Westphalia), Anna Rathert (Member of the Bundestag), Marc Bernhard (Member of the Bundestag), Katrin Ebner-Steiner (Member of the Landtag, Bavaria), and Marc Jongen (Member of the European Parliament). The party provided 35,000 euros of conference funding. During his four-day visit to Washington, Frohnmaier held meetings at the Commerce Department and with Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.

Politico reports that a meeting between German parliamentarians and the U.S. State Department was canceled after the State Department told the German Embassy that it was only prepared to meet with members of the Christian Democrats and AfD, excluding Social Democratic and Green members of the delegation. During the trip to Washington, AfD Member of the Bundestag Peter Felser met individually with David A. Baker, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy to discuss the U.S. National Security Strategy and European defense.

Before he was awarded the Allen W. Dulles Award by the New York Young Republican Club, Markus Frohnmaier led a delegation of AfD politicians to Washington, DC. Frohnmaier met with Reps. Anna Luna and Tim Burchett, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, and Senior Bureau Official at the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Darren Beattie. AfD Member of the Bundestag Anna Rathert joined him in the meeting with the members of Congress. About twenty AfD representatives attended the NYYRC gala in New York, including Micha Fehre, Udo Hemmelgarn, Jan Nolte, Anna Rathert, Martin Reichardt, Jan Wenzel Schmidt, Alexander Wolf, and Diana Zimmer.

Member of the Bundestag Anna Rathert met with Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna about “shared priorities and the importance of defending freedom and democratic principles on both sides of the Atlantic.” Rep. Luna announced that she was looking forward to hosting the AfD again in Washington in December.

Alex Bruesewitz, an advisor to a Trump-affiliated political action committee Never Surrender, gave a talk entitled “The Global Battle for Truth – How Conservatives Can Regain Interpretive Authority” in the Bundestag in November 2025.

The New York Young Republican Club held a “Drinks with AfD” reception with parliamentarians Jan Wenzel Schmidt and Kay Gottschalk. The event invitation characterized the party as having  “worked tirelessly under a decade of government persecution to liberate the German people, save German demographics, and return tradition to the German Volk.” The reception gained public attention when a tenor sang the taboo verse of the German national anthem closely associated with National Socialism.

Markus Frohnmaier, deputy chair of the AfD in the Bundestag, visited Washington September 29-30, 2025. With fellow Member of the Bundestag Jan Wenzel Schmidt, he met with acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Darren Beattie to discuss the transatlantic relationship as well as “shared priorities on cultural exchange and migration.” Frohnmaier spoke to Georgetown University’s College Republicans on “The Ascending Right in the West.”

On September 15, Politico reported that Beatrix von Storch held a meeting at the White House with officials from the National Security Council, Department of State, and the Office of the Vice President. Their discussions focused on “democratic participation and election procedures in Germany.” Joachim Paul, an AfD politician who had been disqualified from a mayoral race in Rhineland-Palitinate because of anti-democratic activity, joined von Storch as an example of perceived exclusion of right-wing ideas in German democracy.

AfD national co-leader Tino Chrupalla and deputy leader Beatrix von Storch were in Washington, DC, for the inauguration of Donald Trump. In a statement before the inauguration, Chrupalla said, “Attending the inauguration of President Donald Trump shows once again that we are implementing our interest-led policies.” He had been invited to attend the inauguration before it was moved inside the Capitol due to extreme cold temperatures. Chrupalla told the German press he had met with business leaders, members of Congress, and diplomats during the trip; von Storch met Donald Trump Jr. and advisor Steve Bannon.

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