The Limits of Ideological Alignment
MAGA, the AfD, and American-German Relations
Speaker:
Zsuzsanna Végh, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)
Moderator:
Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture, & Politics Program, American-German Institute
The return of Donald Trump to the White House brought a qualitatively new challenge to the American-German relationship. As senior members of the Trump administration and the broader MAGA movement openly challenged the German mainstream’s approach to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), AfD politicians cultivated increasingly visible ties with political allies in the United States. These connections appeared to point toward an emerging new transatlantic alignment as well as an opposition to the liberal political mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet the relationship is proving to be less straightforward than it initially appeared, and the Trump administration’s war in Iran eventually prompted the AfD to distance itself from the U.S. president. At the same time, political tensions between Washington and Berlin have persisted, raising broader questions about the foundations and future resilience of the bilateral relationship.
This webinar examines what the evolution of MAGA-AfD ties reveals about the changing political landscape of American-German relations. It explores how ideological affinities and transnational political networks interact with traditional diplomacy; whether the recent cooling of AfD-MAGA relations represents a temporary adjustment or points to the limits of transatlantic far-right cooperation; and what these developments mean for Germany’s relationship with the United States.
This event is supported by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Foreign Office.
