Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s Jan Wenzel Schmidt (R), member of Germany's lower house of parliament Bundestag and AfD's Christian von Hoffmeister sing "Germany, Germany above all", the tabooed verse of the German national anthem, together with singer Emilio Pons and Stefano Forte (3rd R), president of the New York Young Republican Club, at a gathering, in a Manhattan club in New York City, U.S., October 2, 2025, in this screengarb from a video. REUTERS/Maria Tsvetkova
BERLIN/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Germany's far-right AfD party, long shunned at home, is courting support in Washington, leveraging ties to MAGA personalities who have risen to senior roles in the Trump administration.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), classified as extremist by Germany's domestic intelligence service and ostracised 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.
