WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s first month in office highlighted the arrogance of a superpower, interference in the domestic and foreign affairs of allies, dubious claims to ownership of other countries, and an attitude towards Moscow that evoked memories of the 1938 appeasement of Nazi Germany. 

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The trump administration’s view of itself and the rest of the world was brought into sharp focus, by Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference, an annual event widely seen as the leading forum for debating international security policy. 

It was Vance’s debut on a global stage and the speech he delivered left much of the audience gobsmacked, as one participant remarked privately. Rather than explaining Trump’s plans on how to deal with China, the rising superpower, or Iran, or the blood-letting in Gaza, the 40-year-old newcomer to high-level diplomacy, delivered a lecture on free speech and democratic values. 

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“The…threat that I worry about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” he said in the first few minutes of his speech. “What I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.” 

“Free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he added, citing as one example that the organisers of the conference had banned lawmakers from populist parties from participating in these conversations. Without naming parties, those in the packed hall knew he was talking about the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD). 

His support for the AfD  did not remain unspoken for long. Later in the day, Vance visited AfD leader Alice Weidel. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the American’s open endorsement of her party as unwelcome interference in elections less than 10 days before the polls.  

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German defence minister Boris Pistorius angrily dismissed Vance’s criticism as “unacceptable.” 

The AfD is polling around 20 percent ahead of the February 23 elections but the party has pariah status and is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence service for extremist views. In a policy dubbed “firewall”, other parties refuse to work with the AfD. 

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The anti-immigrants party’s public profile received a major boost in January when Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s most influential adviser, described the AfD as “the best hope for the future of Germany.” He also urged party followers to “get over” past guilt, a reference to the mass murder of Jews in Nazi Germany. 

An AfD spokesman said Vance and Weidel had discussed German domestic policy, freedom of speech and censorship. 

In a bizarre coincidence, on the same day, the Trump administration engaged in an act of ugly censorship. The White House announced it was banning the Associated Press, one of the world’s biggest news organisations, from the Oval Office and Air Force One indefinitely. 

The reason: last month Trump renamed the body of water known for centuries as the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. U.S. government agencies have adopted the change but the AP and other international news organisations have clients around the world which have not accepted the new name. 

 The White House’s authoritarian mindset was brought into focus by a press conference question by CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins: “Is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don’t use the language that you guys believe reporters should use?”  

Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt’s response: “If we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this (briefing) room, we hold those lies accountable. And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that but that what it is.”  

 (The ‘gulf of America” was born by Trump Executive Order in the first week of his  second presidential term).