Overview
- About 20 AfD lawmakers traveled to the United States and took part in the New York Young Republican Club gala at Cipriani Wall Street, where Markus Frohnmaier was honored and given a speaking slot.
- The delegation scheduled meetings in Washington with Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna and other members of Congress to deepen ties to Trump‑aligned networks against the backdrop of a new U.S. security strategy that praises “patriotic” European parties.
- Der Tagesspiegel reports that flights and hotels were financed by AfD parliamentary factions, with up to €57,000 for the Bundestag group and up to €50,000 for Saxony‑Anhalt, and that gala tickets were to be purchased privately.
- BILD claimed the trip was funded by taxpayers, a characterization disputed in subsequent reporting and by AfD factions.
- Leaders from the SPD, Greens and Union condemned the outreach and highlighted the NYYRC’s controversies, including texts urging a new order in Germany and chat scandals that glorified Hitler or joked about gas chambers.