A German court ruled the Trump administration is “openly far-right” with “fascist tendencies” as German police raided several prominent conservative critics for alleged “Hate Speech” last week. Firing back, the US Embassy in Berlin warned of “censorship and oppression of political opponents in Germany”, which is “threatening to ban the opposition”. Notably, President Trump has yet to even nominate an Ambassador to Germany, a diplomatic slight usually reserved for antagonistic countries.
A judge at Bonn Circuit Court described the Trump administration as “openly far-right extremist-populist”” and claimed it had “fascist tendencies”, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported. in its actions. The Circuit Court 13th Civil Chamber complained of “deeply anti-democratic, anti-law, autocratic or fascist tendencies in the Trump administration,” the judge said in a ruling on a suit by an internet user complaining of US access to his data.
The bureaucratic, anti-free market EU has generated no successful Internet platforms of its own, but it frequently complains about US internet platforms.
The judge called Vice President JD Vance’s historic speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, calling out censorship and political oppression in the EU “ridiculous” in light of alleged “fascism” in the USA.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Berlin was “taken aback”, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported, expressed worry about “censorship and persecution of political opponents” in top NATO ally Germany: The US government is “concerned about the potential for a democratic blackslide in Germany due to steps to ban popular opposition parties.”
On June 29, 2025, the ruling Social Democrat party voted to ban the most popular party in Germany, the right-wing AfD, which is currently polling at 26%, ahead of Chancellor Merz’s Christian Democrats at 24% and the failing Social Democrats at 15%. A possible AfD ban would have to be decided by Germany’s supreme court, which has become notoriously political since Chancellor Angela Merkel installed fellow party member Stephan Harbarth as chair, ridiculously claiming the 1949 German Constitution requires carbon net-zero policies, for example. The Social Democrats have further been packing the court with leftist judges this year to ensure an AfD ban will go through because they cannot beat the party at the polls.
As the recession in Germany heads into its fourth year due to insane “climate transformation” polices and migrant stabbings and gang rapes have become a daily occurrence, the German government is now resorting to more and more repressive measures to keep a lid on dissent.
This week, police in Hamburg raided the home of renowned media professor Norbert Bolz for a satiric post comparing the “woke” agenda to the Nazi slogan “Germany awaken!” (Deutschland erwache!). The almost 2-year old post was reported by a state-funded “hate speech tracker” HessenAgainst hate to the “Hate Speech Desk” ZMI at the German FBI Bundeskriminalamt BKA.
Mainstream German media critic Norbert Bolz just had his house raided for repeating James Lindsay’s connection between “woke” & the SA lyric “Deutschland erwache!”* (“Germany awaken!”). I swear I am not making this up (also I reject this & all other deplorable Nazi slogans). pic.twitter.com/0K19ETX749
— eugyppius (@eugyppius1) October 23, 2025
Liberal journalist Jochen Bittner called for the Judge and DA who approved the raid to be tried for abuse of the law.
Free speech lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel called for German Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt to “issue clear guidelines on how to take context into account in free speech cases, on strict proportionality in digital evidence, and on safeguarding academic and press freedom. Whoever criminalizes criticism confuses law with revenge and security with censorship. Steinhöfel called the search and seizure of a renowned professor because of an obviously legal tweet a “scandalous infringement of basic civil rights.”
German prosecutors obviously have instructions to find reasons to raid, prosecute and intimidate political critics, journalists and opposition leaders. They frequently exaggerate the threat posed by harmless tweets, such as taking any mention of the Nazis as a literal endorsement of the Nazis. I described on Michael Shellenberger’s website Public how the Munich police nearly raided my home for a Donald Duck meme and criticizing Hamas uses of the swastika, for example.
On Oct. 21, Covid-critical attorney Stefan Homburg received a summons for his court date Jan. 8, 2026, for “insulting” prominent German Covid “ethics czar” Alena Buyx, notorious for pronouncing vax mandates “ethical”. On April 12, 2024, Homburg had accused Buyx of endorsing “forced measures”, which she feels is an illegal insult. The prosecution files show that the D.A. in Hanover considers the case a “political prosecution”, which is apparently a category of crime now in Germany.
That same week, rabid Israel critic Jürgen Todenhöfer announced he is being investigated for “hate speech” for comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis, and for criticizing German support for Ukraine in light of claims Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. “The court ordered a search of my apartment, my office, my car, and also me personally, as well as to seize all my cell phones, iPads, and storage media.”
Contrary to media reports, the raid has not been executed so far because the authorities could not find him, Todenhöfer posted.
“At any moment, security forces could storm my apartment, search it, and seize my electronic devices If one is no longer allowed to criticize Netanyahu, if one is no longer allowed to speak openly about war and genocide, then freedom of opinion in Germany is at an end. Without freedom of opinion, democracies cannot survive”, Todenhöfer posted, melodramatically announcing he would not pay a fine if sentenced and go to prison instead.
The Central Reporting Desk of the Bundeskriminalamt BKA has received 59.010 reports since 2021, of which 85% were deemed to be punishable by law, it reports, including 5186 reports in the 1st quarter 2025, 6241 reports in the 2nd quarter 2025, and 5256 reports in the 3rd quarter 2025, a total of 16,683 reported “hate speech crimes” 2025 so far. Assuming the 85% punishability rate applies, that means approximately. 14000 “hate speech crimes” have been pursued this year in Germany, or approximately. 50 per day.
JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference Feb. 20:
“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. Speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference.
Even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential – and trust me, I say this with all humour – if American democracy can survive ten years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.
But what no democracy, American, German or European will survive, is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief, are invalid or unworthy of even being considered. Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There is no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t. Europeans, the people have a voice. European leaders have a choice. And my strong belief is that we do not need to be afraid of the future.”