Overview
- ARD’s 21 September episode, titled “Trump spaltet die USA – welchen Schaden nimmt die Demokratie?”, featured CDU/CSU leader Jens Spahn alongside Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook and Kerstin Kohlenberg.
- Spahn compared MAGA tactics to left‑wing “cancel culture” and declined to call ABC’s removal of Jimmy Kimmel’s show censorship, a stance that drew immediate pushback from Kohlenberg.
- He said Germany lacks fairness in wealth distribution and signaled that any inheritance‑tax changes would wait for a Federal Constitutional Court ruling expected in early 2026.
- Spahn expressed confidence that the Bundestag will elect new Constitutional Court judges this week, citing lessons from July’s failed vote and pointing to nominees Sigrid Emmenegger, Ann‑Katrin Kaufhold and Günter Spinner.
- Ashbrook and Kohlenberg warned of institutional erosion and transnational right‑wing dynamics, while Spahn called the AfD anti‑American and stressed Germany’s reliance on the United States for security.