Andreas Michaelis reportedly believes the incoming US president will crack down on democratic institutions and the media
Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Andreas Michaelis, warned Berlin that incoming President Donald Trump will likely try to undermine key principles underpinning American democracy, Reuters said, citing a confidential document.
The Republican firebrand has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the FBI and Justice Department, accusing them of launching a “witch hunt” against him. In 2022, he denounced both as “ferocious monsters, controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers and the media.”
In an exclusive report on Saturday, Reuters cited the confidential cable purportedly signed by Michaelis and dated Jan. 14 predicting that Trump will seek “maximum concentration of power… at the expense of Congress and the federal states.”
“Basic democratic principles and checks and balances will be greatly undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and the media will lose their independence and be misused as a political arm, and big tech companies will be given power to control co-government.” the diplomat supposedly wrote.
According to the outlet, the German envoy believes that Trump will not hesitate to deploy the army nationwide to fulfill his campaign promises, such as mass deportations of illegal immigrants. Michaelis is also reported to have suggested that Trump’s second term would likely spark a “redefinition of the First Amendment” with the new administration going after its critics.
While the German government has not made any hostile comments about the Republican, Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday lashed out at American tech billionaire Elon Musk, who recently emerged as one of Trump’s closest allies. He accused the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX of trying to interfere in EU politics by supporting the “The extreme right across Europe, in Britain, in Germany.”
Last month, Musk described Scholz as a “incompetent fool” stating that the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the only party capable of “save Germany”. Last week, the tech mogul hosted a livestream with AfD co-chair Alice Weidel on X, his social media platform.
Several weeks after his victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election, Trump named former adviser and ultra-loyal Kash Patel as the next director of the FBI. In a recently published book, the former public defender criticized the agency’s work and called for its complete overhaul.
While his opponents have routinely accused Trump of posing a threat to American democracy, the politician attuned to the real estate kingpin charged in December 2023 that President Joe Biden had “He has been weaponizing the government against his political opponents like a Third World political tyrant.”
“Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as allies of democracy.” Trump told his supporters, concluding that the Democrat “He is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.”
