BERLIN/NEW YORK –
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), long shunned at home, is courting support in Washington, leveraging ties to MAGA personalities who have risen to senior roles in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The AfD, classified as extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence service and ostracized by mainstream parties, has held meetings with senior U.S. State Department officials in recent months — a rare move for a far-right opposition party in an allied country, according to a current and a former U.S. official and a German government source.
The outreach reflects a growing alignment between the AfD and parts of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, which has voiced support for the party’s complaints about political repression at home and its hard-line stance on immigration.