BERLIN — Alex Bruesewitz, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, told leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD — a party labeled extremist by German authorities — that he sees them as “bold visionaries” shaping the country’s future.

Speaking to a room packed with AfD parliamentarians and supporters in Berlin on Wednesday night, Bruesewitz declared that MAGA conservatives and members of Germany’s rising far right are united in a common fight along with other nationalist forces around the world against “Marxists” and “globalists” that he framed as “a spiritual war for the soul of our nations.”

Bruesewitz, a social media guru credited with helping Trump return to the White House, is now a senior adviser to Never Surrender, Trump’s leadership political action committee. His speech to AfD parliamentarians comes at a time when German far-right figures are increasingly looking for legitimacy and support from MAGA Republicans in the U.S., particularly for what they frame as a struggle against political persecution and censorship at home.

It’s something of a turnabout for AfD politicians, who have historically exhibited a strong anti-American streak, viewing the U.S. as having infringed on Germany’s sovereignty in the postwar era and seeking instead to build closer relations with Russia. But since Trump’s return to the White House, AfD leaders have made a concerted effort to get close to MAGA Republicans.

Beatrix von Storch, an AfD politician who has been at the forefont of the party’s efforts to build connections with MAGA Republicans, said Bruesewitz’s visit was about “reaching out to be closer to our American friends.”

Bruesewitz echoed that message during his talk on “the global battle for truth,” as the event was dubbed.

“We are in this together,” he said. “The globalists fear united patriots more than anything.”

Who’s the anti-democrat?

The AfD is now the strongest opposition party in the German parliament, and in many recent polls has surpassed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling conservatives. The party’s growing popularity comes despite the fact that earlier this year, Germany’s federal domestic intelligence agency, which is tasked with monitoring groups deemed to be antidemocratic, declared the AfD to be an extremist organization.

This designation fueled debate among mainstream German politicians about whether the party ought to be banned under provisions of the German Constitution designed to prevent a repeat of the Nazi rise to power. Centrist parties in Germany have so far refused to form national coalitions with the AfD, maintaining a so-called firewall around the far right that has been in place since shortly after World War II.

But AfD politicians argue that German mainstream politicians are the true antidemocratic forces and are seeking to suppress the will of the German people through the state apparatus. They have often found a sympathetic ear for that argument in MAGA circles.

When Germany’s domestic intelligence agency declared the AfD to be extremist, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the move “tyranny in disguise.” During the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, U.S. Vice President JD Vance urged mainstream politicians in Europe to protect free speech rights of anti-immigration parties and to knock down the “firewalls” that shut out far-right parties from government.

AfD politicians have repeatedly visited Washington in recent months to make the case that they are the victims of political persecution and to solicit American support. Last week, German right-wing influencer and AfD ally Naomi Seibt said she had applied for asylum in the U.S., claiming to be “facing persecution” in Germany for her views and saying she is the target of “severe government and intelligence surveillance and harassment.”

Lost in translation

During his Berlin speech, Bruesewitz suggested MAGA Republicans had faced a similar experience of persecution in the U.S., likening criminal indictments against Trump and past social media deplatforming of right-wing figures to the same kind of leftist, anti-democratic suppression AfD leaders claim to be facing.

“As I sit and watch what’s happening all over Europe with the censorship concerns, the same thing happened in America,” said Bruesewitz. “You can let it happen here. You have to protect free speech,” he added to a round of enthusiastic applause.

Not all aspects of Bruesewitz’s message were met with equal enthusiasm. His defense of Trump’s tariffs, which have hit Germany’s export-oriented industries particularly hard, did not win applause.

Bruesewitz also repeatedly invoked passages from the Bible and called on Germans to embrace a distinctly American brand of Christian nationalism that, while embraced by some AfD politicians, is largely alien to Germans, who are broadly less pious.

At one point, Bruesewitz called faith “our greatest weapon,” and said the killing of conservative American influencer Charlie Kirk had made him realize that conservative nationalists are not just engaged in a political battle, but rather a “spiritual war” that extends beyond the U.S.

“The forces arrayed against us aren’t just ideological opponents, they’re manifestations of evil, seeking to extinguish the light of faith, family and freedom,” Bruesewitz said. “This spiritual battle isn’t confined to the United States. Oh, no. Germany and America may be separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but we face the same exact enemies, the same threats, the same insidious forces trying to tear us down.”