The Dictatorship

Musk and Vance’s praise of an extreme-right German party is a truly disturbing development

Published

2 years ago

December 27, 2024

Musk and Vance’s praise of an extreme-right German party is a truly disturbing development

Alarm bells sounded last week when Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump adviser Elon Musk praised the far-right German party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD)just weeks before that country’s snap national elections are scheduled to take place.

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk posted on X, prompting backlash from conservative and mainstream German leaders and the global Jewish community about a key Trump adviser’s endorsement of a party that has flirted with Nazi and white supremacist slogans and espoused dehumanizing and hateful rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims. In the wake of the criticism, Musk doubled down, writing the next day that “AfD is the only hope for Germany.”

Make no mistake: It is extremely dangerous to have an American vice president-elect and a core Trump adviser voice support for the AfD, therefore normalizing very extreme political positions.

Vance’s more tacit endorsement for AfD came in the form of a post responding to claims that AfD is dangerous. “It’s so dangerous for people to control their borders,” Vance tweeted sarcastically Saturday, implying support for the party’s anti-immigration positions. “So so dangerous. The dangerous level is off the charts.”

Make no mistake: It is extremely dangerous to have an American vice president-elect and a core Trump adviser voice support for the AfD, therefore normalizing very extreme political positions. The AfD has called for mass deportationsargued that children with disabilities should be removed from regular schoolsand runs social media ads blaming immigrants for crime and sexual violence. One anti-immigrant ad run by the AfD showed the belly of a pregnant white woman with the phrase “New Germans? We’ll make them ourselves.” Another campaign billboard used a 19th century painting of a slave market — depicting a nude, white woman having her teeth inspected by turban-clad, brown men — to warn that Europe could become “Eurabia,” a reference to a conspiracy theory favored by white supremacists.

State-level German domestic intelligence authorities formally monitor some local branches of the AfD as extremist organizations that are working against German democracy. One of the party’s regional leaders has been fined multiple times by German courts for using a banned Nazi phrase“Everything for Germany” (Alles für Deutschland), prompting another politician to refer to the AfD itself as a “Nazi” party earlier this year.

Even other European far- right parties have disavowed the party as too extreme. In May, the far-right coalition in the European Parliament expelled the AfD after its leading candidate stated that not all Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel, the guards in World War II concentration campus) were criminals. On Dec. 20, an AfD supportera doctor and self-described “former Muslim” who was angry at the “Islamification” of Germany, drove his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five, including a 9-year-old girl, and injuring dozens.

The overall risk of an AfD victory in the upcoming February snap election is very low. Most Germans view the party negatively, and thousands have marched in protest of its normalization of racist and xenophobic rhetoric. Still, the AfD has steadily gained voters, although it’s currently polling in second place nationally (with 19% support), trailing a conservative alliance that is widely expected to win.

The bigger risk is the normalization of democratic interference that falls outside any system of checks and balances.

Musk has already demonstrated that his social media engagement can shape political outcomes. In the weeks before and after the U.S. presidential election, he used his platform X to help amplify false election claims and push his preferred Cabinet picks for Trump’s administration. Vance has used X and other public venues to describe professional women who prioritize careers over children as choosing a “path to misery,” deride Democratic leaders as “childless cat ladies,” share widely debunked claims about immigrants eating pets in Ohio, and argue that American men have suppressed their masculinity.

We now have two key incoming administration officials using a private social media platform to tacitly or explicitly endorse an extreme foreign political party in ways that could impact a foreign election and geopolitics more broadly.

That should worry us all. America’s founding fathers sought to build a system of checks and balances to ensure that no single arm of government could operate without constraint or accrue too much power. But those founders were unable to imagine a world in which the most influential axes of power might not be in any single branch of government, but in privately-owned virtual platforms with unimaginable global reach.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at American University, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). Her most recent book is “Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right.”

The Dictatorship

FIFA faces global anger over plan to give Kushner brother a financial stake

Published

6 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

FIFA faces global anger over plan to give Kushner brother a financial stake

Christmas. 29, 2026, 7:54 PM EDT

International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.

The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)

Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.

As The Athletic reported:

FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.

Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.

A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.

But Trump basically has already given son-in-law Jared Kushner carte blanche to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while simultaneously hatching business plans in the region. (Jared Kushner has denied any conflicts of interest.)

Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.

“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”

FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!

Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea

— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.

But what it does seem likely to do is fuel global anger toward the U.S. — the kind that has been growing since Trump retook office.

And when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable how the same MAGA movement whose members whined for years about politics mixing with sports is now in lockstep with a president who seems dead-set on casting his shadow over every sports event he can.

This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.

Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.

The Dictatorship

Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 7.29.26

Published

6 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* In the Middle East: “Jordan’s air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the U.S. military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting.”

* At the Fed: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted to hold its key interest rate steady but not without opposition from three officials who have expressed concern over inflation and wanted to hike. Despite increasing support among some officials for a rate increase, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to leave the federal funds rate in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%.”

* All eyes on Cornyn: “Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has yet to decide whether he will vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently head the Department of Justice after saying Wednesday he was ‘not prepared’ to lend his support to President Donald Trump’s nominee.”

* This request is intended to repay the National Park Service, whose funds Team Trump unjustly raided: “The Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional $10 million to cover costs related to Freedom 250 events recently held on the National Mall, including a prayer event, a fair and a fireworks show.”

* Will the Carroll case ever end? “The Supreme Court already denied the first of Donald Trump’s two petitions against E. Jean Carroll. But the second petition, filed Tuesday, stands a better chance of gaining the high court’s interest because it raises presidential immunity and is backed by the Justice Department.”

* I’m eager to hear why a private citizen can’t delete the contents of his own phone: “It sounds like something James Bond would use: a gadget that self-destructs if it falls into the wrong hands. But it’s actually an open-source operating system that can be downloaded onto Android phones. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are bringing an obstruction charge against a U.S. citizen who gave customs officers what is known as a duress passcode, which activated software that erased the contents of his phone.”

* My advice: Read real books written entirely by real people: “A few years into the A.I. era, there is sobering evidence that a significant and growing portion of the novels being sold are written with or by chatbots, and that readers are buying them. A new study conducted by computer scientists using A.I. detection software to analyze thousands of self-published novels on Amazon, found that a substantial number of those novels contained chatbot-generated prose.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Epstein survivors say meeting with Todd Blanche was ‘very condescending’

Published

6 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Epstein survivors say meeting with Todd Blanche was ‘very condescending’

Christmas. 29, 2026, 5:29 PM EDT

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse said Wednesday that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was “very condescending” toward them in their meeting with him this month and told them to “get to the point.”

Ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on whether to move President Donald Trump’s nomination as attorney general to the full Senate for a vote, the survivors were on Capitol Hill urging Republican lawmakers to deny Blanche the position.

Survivor Dani Bensky told reporters that the meeting a couple of weeks ago with Blanche, who had declined to meet with them for months, was “very condescending” and that he would not answer their questions on why investigative leads and referrals in the case have not been followed.

“He actually said the words ‘Get to the point’ to us,” Benskey said. “We’re survivors who have been waiting to meet with him for nine months, eight months.”

Another survivor said Blanche told them he had not read the files.

Bensky, who was standing with other survivors outside the office of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, voiced appreciation for the senator for his support of survivors. The said they had not met with Cornyn Wednesday but had spoken to Judiciary Committee staff members, and that the meeting was “productive” and the staff members “were very pleasant and very open.”

Cornyn said Wednesday that he is “not prepared to vote yes” on Blanche’s nomination. He also called off a meeting with Blanche, saying the nominee had failed to provide proof that President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund is officially dead.

Survivors have been campaigning for GOP holdouts to vote against Blanche’s confirmation. Bensky said her group had run into Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., in the elevator earlier and that he said he would like to meet with them. Tillis has also suggested that he might oppose Blanche’s confirmation.

Bensky said it would have “a massive chilling effect to all survivors across the U.S.” if Blanche’s nomination is moved out of committee and to the full Senate.

Asked for the survivors’ final message to the lawmakers, Bensky said: “It’s not political. Just do the right thing. Just be on the right side of history.”

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.