Trump’s Adviser Meets with AfD Leaders in Berlin

Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, called leaders of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—classified by German authorities as extremist—“brave visionaries” shaping the country’s future.

Speaking in Berlin before a hall of AfD lawmakers and supporters, Bruesewitz said that the MAGA movement in the United States and Europe’s right-wing parties are united with nationalist forces worldwide in a “spiritual war for the souls of our nations” against “Marxists” and “globalists.”

Bruesewitz, a social media strategist and senior adviser to Trump’s political action committee Never Surrender, has played a visible role in his return to the White House. His visit coincided with AfD’s efforts to strengthen ties with MAGA-aligned Republicans by portraying themselves as victims of political repression and censorship in Germany.

This shift is telling: not long ago, the party often voiced anti-American sentiment and criticized the United States as a violator of German sovereignty, favoring closer ties with Russia instead. However, following Donald Trump’s return to power, AfD has been actively seeking contact with American allies.

One of the party’s key figures, Beatrix von Storch, said that Bruesewitz’s visit should “strengthen friendship with our American partners.” At an event titled “The Global Battle for Truth,” Bruesewitz reinforced that message: “We are in this together. What globalists fear most are united patriots.”

Alternative for Germany (AfD) is currently the largest opposition force in the Bundestag and, according to polls, is outpacing Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s bloc. Its growing popularity comes amid a decision by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which has officially designated AfD as an extremist organization.

The move has sparked fierce debate over whether a party deemed anti-democratic by the intelligence services should be allowed to operate within a system designed to prevent the return of authoritarianism. Centrist parties continue to rule out any coalition with AfD, maintaining the “cordon sanitaire” around the far right that has existed since World War II.

AfD itself claims that the real threat to democracy comes not from them but from the ruling parties, which, it says, use the state apparatus to suppress dissent. This argument resonates with supporters of the MAGA movement in the United States.

After AfD was designated as extremist, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio called it “tyranny in disguise.” At the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance urged that freedom of speech be protected for anti-immigration parties and that “barriers” preventing them from participating in governance be lifted.

In recent months, AfD representatives have made multiple trips to Washington seeking support among Republicans. Last week, blogger and party ally Naomi Seibt announced that she had applied for political asylum in the United States, claiming she was under “heavy surveillance and pressure” from German authorities.

In Berlin, Bruesewitz said that MAGA Republicans in the U.S. face similar pressure. He compared the prosecutions of Trump and the social media bans of right-wing activists to “left-wing anti-democratic repression.”

“When I look at what’s happening in Europe, where there’s growing concern about censorship, I see the same thing that happened in America,” Bruesewitz said. “We cannot allow that to happen here. We must defend free speech,” he added, drawing applause.

Not all of his remarks were well received: his defense of Trump’s tariffs—which had severely hurt Germany’s export industry—met with silence.

Bruesewitz also drew heavily on biblical references, urging Germans to embrace an American-style Christian nationalism—an idea largely unfamiliar to most German voters. He called faith “our greatest weapon” and said that the killing of U.S. activist Charlie Kirk was, for him, a moment of realization that the struggle of conservative nationalists is “not merely political, but a spiritual war.”

“The forces opposing us are not just ideological opponents but the embodiment of evil seeking to extinguish the light of faith, family, and freedom,” Bruesewitz said. “This spiritual battle is not confined to America. Germany and the United States may be separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but we share the same enemies—the same threats, the same unseen powers trying to destroy us.”