Leak reveals AfD outreach to Trump and MAGA allies
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The gist
A leak of over 420,000 AfD emails and records shows the German far-right party's years-long effort to court Trump and MAGA allies.
The party leads German polls at 30 percent while mainstream parties refuse to govern with it.
Background
The AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is Germany's far-right party, holding hardline anti-immigration views and labeled by German intelligence as a suspected domestic extremist organization. The leaked trove of over 420,000 emails, documents and personnel records, dating from 2013 and thinning after 2019, was published by The Guardian, exposing how the party sought support from President Trump and his MAGA allies for over a decade. Germany's leading parties refuse to form coalitions with the AfD, yet Trump and MAGA figures have praised it, and Vice President JD Vance and State Department employees have frequently met AfD politicians including leader Alice Weidel.
How it unfolded
- 2013The leaked trove of over 420,000 emails, documents and personnel records from the AfD begins, though the information thins out after 2019.
- 2016After Trump's election win, the AfD debated how to word a congratulatory telegram, wishing that Trump's "hopes as a person be fulfilled," and asked him to support removing the "enemy state" clause from the U.N. charter.
- 2024Björn Höcke, the AfD's leader in Thuringia, was convicted of using a banned slogan from the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing.
- Just before Trump's inauguration last yearAfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch and her husband Sven attended Trump's "Make America Great Again Victory Rally."
- Oct 23, 2026The Guardian publishes an exclusive, citing a data leak from the AfD, on the party's efforts to court Trump and MAGA allies.
Who’s saying what
- Party
- AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch bragged in a newsletter that she met Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. at Trump's pre-inauguration rally.
- Official
- Trump posted on Truth Social about the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt win that the party is "ON THE RISE" and that Germans are "tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules."
Still unverified
AfD leaders sought to make contact with Richard Grenell, then ambassador to Germany during Trump's first term, but were unsuccessful, according to the leaks.