OPTICS IN VALENCIA, FLEEING TRUMP The stories of disillusioned and fearful U.S. families seeking refuge from MAGA in Spain. Text and photos by MICHAEL ROBINSON CHÁVEZ in Valencia, Spain Mira Ibrisimovic, above, moves into her new apartment in Valencia, Spain. She left Colombia with her husband and children when her contract with U.S. Agency for International Development was terminated. Below, a naturalized U.S.-citizen who declined showing her face for this article fearing retaliation from the Trump administration. She recently moved to Valencia with her husband and their two children. In the first photo, Matt and Brett Cloninger-West shop at a local market. They left the U.S. early this year with their daughter. Matt and Brett Cloninger-West are getting a passionate crash course in the finer points of Spanish ham from the vendor at the public market. What part of the leg produces the leanest meat? The tastiest? What kinds of acorns are the pigs eating? They then move on to the produce stand, the bakery loaded with fresh bread and the cheese seller who had dozens of varieties from across the country on display.  This Old World shopping style has become one of the new joys of living in Valencia, Spain, where they moved from Washington, D.C., earlier this year. According to international real estate websites, Spain’s third-largest city has eclipsed Barcelona and Madrid as the top destination for American buyers and renters seeking to settle permanently. The Mediterranean city has long been included in lists of the “best cities to retire.” But a new group of residents is arriving — younger families with children fleeing what they see as the creeping authoritarianism of President Donald Trump’s America. Advertisement Brett Cloninger-West, 56, and his husband, Matt, 52, were both born in the United States and had well-paying, seemingly stable jobs in Washington. That all fell apart soon after Trump’s inauguration. Brett, a successful real estate agent for the past 18 years, and Matt, an IT specialist focused on strategic planning for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saw their livelihoods evaporate within weeks of the inauguration. “Within three weeks of the inauguration new business was down 75 percent,” Brett said. “Everyone was being fired.” Meanwhile, Matt received one of Elon Musk’s “fork in the road” emails. Musk was tearing up the federal government, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs, as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Matt realized his position was on the chopping block and reluctantly took a buyout. Unemployed and living in an increasingly tense and hostile city where soldiers patrolled the streets, they knew they had to leave the U.S. “The D.C. that I grew up in and spent my entire adult life in, no longer exists,” said Brett holding back tears. “I loved the place, even with all of its warts and hostilities. It really felt like home. “We didn’t want to leave, we had to,” said Brett. “It feels like an occupied city,” added Matt. “Why Valencia? Just walking outside and breathing the air,” explained Brett, “there is no tension in it. There is no hostility in it.” Mira Ibrisimovic and her husband, Mario Sanginés, oversee movers and boxes in their newly rented apartment. They recently arrived from Bogotá, Colombia, where Sanginés, now retired, worked for the Inter-American Development Bank, and Ibrisimovic was a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development. That contract ended days after Trump’s inauguration. “It has been really traumatic,” said Ibrisimovic as she sipped a cappuccino. “The ending of 24 years of working for USAID … It was complete obliteration.” Ibrisimovic has faced obliteration before. She was born in Belgrade when it was still part of Yugoslavia. She remembers viewing the United States as a symbol of democracy, a place she once hoped to be part of. That hope has now been shattered: “For me, it’s the disillusionment with the United States. I always had the drive to go there, no matter the problems. I believed in what it stood for. My belief that the country believed in doing right has been shattered with Trump being elected twice.” Sanginés, who is originally from Bolivia, retired from the IDB this year. Spain had always been on the couple’s radar as a potential retirement spot and Sanginés has family in Barcelona. They didn’t expect it to be so soon.  “We still have a house in D.C. and the kids were born there, so there are still ties,” said Ibrisimovic, “but we did not want to go back and live there and raise our kids there for many reasons — the quality of life, safety, to be away from the toxic environment. It is not the right time with what is going on politically, but also culturally, socially and racially.”  Advertisement Many new arrivals in Valencia were afraid to speak out against Trump and his policies, fearing retaliation from the U.S. government. One of them, a middle-aged woman with two children, grew up in the Philippines during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Her family was outspokenly opposed to the dictator and fled to the U.S.  “I remember that at dinner time we would watch the news and watch the chaos happening in Manila. My mom and dad would be really worried,” she said. “I remember being that young and being scared.” Those memories flooded back after Trump’s reelection and inauguration. Her husband and friends told her not to worry, that the government was set up with checks and balances. “There won’t be this time,” she replied. “They are going to come for people who are here and who are not criminals. They are going to come for naturalized citizens. My kids said, ‘You’re crazy.’ Everything I said came true.” Her husband had never been to Spain. In March he visited Valencia and, after reading more headlines about ICE raids and detentions on the streets of American cities, decided they really needed to leave. She hadn’t been waiting for his green light: She had already taken care of all the paperwork for the move. She chose Valencia because she already had friends living there who praised the city: safe, easy to get around, excellent schools, and affordable, quality health care. Any concerns about how their two children would adjust to their new home quickly disappeared. Both children are thriving academically and socially and the youngest already has a girlfriend. “It’s not like vacation any more,” her oldest child said. “It feels like home.” The family did not want any identifying details to be included in this report or photographs, fearing repercussions. Advertisement At a trendy café in Russafa, a neighborhood popular with expats and experiencing rising housing prices, the sounds of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young drifted from the speakers as patrons sipped matcha lattes and enjoyed homemade gluten-free cakes. Most spoke in American-accented English. At one table, another naturalized citizen and his wife, who was born in the United States, discussed their decision to leave the country after Trump became president-elect in November 2024. They asked to remain anonymous for this article. “We often worry for our family and friends who are there,” one of them said. “If someone told me years ago that this would be happening, I’d say they lost it, that it was a conspiracy theory. It is just bizarre.”  “We thought about moving for a long time, more to see the world than to leave the U.S.,” one of them explained. They didn’t want their children growing up in what they called a “toxic atmosphere” in Texas. One of them worked for a company linked to the government. Politics was never brought up at work until after Trump’s inauguration, when the owner and managers started to boast about their support for the MAGA movement.   “We became fearful about going out. Our kids aren’t naturalized citizens since they’re born in the U.S., but I am. Our fear was for my citizenship, and therefore, my passport to be revoked, leaving me without a country to belong in.” A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR AFRAID TO SPEAK, FOR THE FIRST TIME I have covered civil wars and authoritarian regimes across five continents, but this is the first time I have heard such fear from U.S. citizens about their own government. While reporting this story in Valencia, I met many Americans who were unwilling to speak and declined to be interviewed for this report, fearing retaliation from Trump’s administration. A few others were willing to go on the record, but anonymously and without their photos in the story. This was especially true for people of color and naturalized citizens. Some worried their families back home would be “rounded up” or that they would lose their jobs, while others feared their passports wouldn’t be renewed or even confiscated. Some said they had scrubbed their social media accounts. I had encountered similar testimonies in places such as Russia, Iraq or Congo — but never about the U.S. Advertisement

The U.S. president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday that he wouldn’t rule out a future run for the White House. “Maybe one day … that calling is there,” Trump Jr. said at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. “I think my father has truly changed the Republican Party.” Trump Jr. is considered one of the most prominent figures in the MAGA movement and is seen as a potential successor to his father’s political legacy, if not the top job. He currently serves as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, but also helps shape his father’s second administration, ensuring that loyalists and ideological true believers populate the executive branch, while serving as a key Trumpian attack dog on social media. Speaking at the Doha forum, Trump Jr. defended the administration’s approach — particularly on trade — arguing that it poses no threat to the strength of the U.S. economy. “Changes take time,” he said, adding that fears among U.S. citizens about Trump’s trade policies were largely fueled by “hysteria” in the media. In March, Trump Jr. denied reports that he was considering running for president in 2028, pointing out that he was a key figure in getting his father to pick JD Vance as vice president, who he described as “an instant power player” in the Republican Party. Trump the elder, despite being constitutionally barred from serving a third term as president, has himself stoked the idea that he could run again in 2028.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s revenge campaign is continuing apace, with celebrities who backed his 2024 election opponent Kamala Harris now in his sights. The Republican leader launched a blistering tirade against legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen last week, calling him “not a talented guy” and attacking his physical appearance, after the New Jersey icon — who endorsed Harris last year — branded the Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” during a concert in England. Now Trump is demanding a “major investigation” into Harris’ lengthy list of celebrity endorsements, singling out Springsteen as well as Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono, and claiming they were illegally compensated. “Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” Trump fumed in a caps lock-heavy screed on social media in the early hours of Monday. “This was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL!” he added, calling the various artists who came out in support of Harris “unpatriotic.” Then-Vice President Harris received a steady stream of celebrity backers leading up to the November election. Beyoncé spoke at a rally in Houston along with former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, but did not perform, while Winfrey hosted a star-studded, live-streamed town hall near Detroit. Rumors falsely circulated that the superstars were paid millions for their support, which their teams quickly shut down. The Harris campaign, which raised more than $1 billion in just a few months, paid Beyoncé’s production company $165,000 and gave $1 million to Harpo Productions, Winfrey’s company, according to campaign finance records. Winfrey addressed criticism over the figure in a social media post, saying she did not receive “any personal fee.” “However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story,” she wrote on Instagram. Beyoncé’s mother said the Grammy-winning artist “did not receive a penny” for her endorsement either and slammed the speculation as fake news. Harris often made her campaign rally entrances to Beyoncé’s song “Freedom.” Trump himself has courted celebrity endorsements in all three of his presidential campaigns, from Kanye West to Kid Rock, with the latter taking the stage at the Republican National Convention and Trump’s inauguration-eve victory rally.

American music legend Bruce Springsteen lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump and his team during a concert in England on Wednesday night. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” Springsteen fumed on stage in Manchester during the opening night of a European tour with his E Street Band. “There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now,” Springsteen said later in the show, according to a local media report, appearing to reference billionaire presidential adviser Elon Musk’s drastic government spending cuts. “In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent … the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.” The 75-year-old musician, famous for a catalog of mega hits including “Born to Run” and “Dancing in the Dark,” has consistently and vocally opposed Trump over the years. During Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, Springsteen called the Republican nominee a “moron” and accused him of bringing “very dangerous ideas” such as “white nationalism and the alt-right movement” into the mainstream. During the 2024 presidential election campaign, Springsteen joined a long list of American celebrities who voiced support for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and said Trump was “running to be an American tyrant.”

Former U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election just a few months before the crucial November vote, claiming it wouldn’t have changed anything if he’d called it quits sooner. Biden has been criticized for announcing his withdrawal too late, giving his Vice President Kamala Harris — who became the Democratic nominee in his stead and ultimately lost to Republican opponent Donald Trump — just a few months to campaign. “I don’t think it would’ve mattered,” he told BBC Radio 4 Today in an interview broadcast Wednesday, his first since leaving office, when asked if he should have ended his candidacy earlier. Describing his administration as a “transition government,” his presidency was “so successful” that “it was hard to say, now I’m going to stop,” Biden said. “Things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away,” he said. After a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June inflamed already swirling concerns about his age and health, Biden faced public pressure to withdraw from fellow Democrats, including powerful Democratic party figure Nancy Pelosi, the former house speaker. Despite repeatedly vowing not to leave the race, he announced on July 21, just 106 days before the election, that he would no longer seek reelection, becoming the first incumbent president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to do so. Calling it “a hard decision” to take his name off the ticket, it was nevertheless the “right” one, he told the BBC, adding it would not have “made much difference” if he had dropped out sooner. Harris’ campaign leadership told American political podcast Pod Save America last November that they did not have enough time to come up with a strategy to defeat Trump. “There was a price to be paid for the short campaign,” David Plouffe, a senior Harris campaign adviser, said.

Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we’re having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub. Follow our exclusive coverage here. MUNICH — Senator Mark Warner has a blunt assessment of the Democratic Party’s struggles in the wake of its crushing losses in the last election. “I think the Democrats’ brand is really bad, and I think this was an election based on culture,” the Virginia Democrat said at a POLITICO Pub event on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. “And the Democrats’ kind of failure to connect on a cultural basis with a wide swath of Americans is hugely problematic.” He criticized rigidity within his party, blaming it for the Republican sweep of the House, Senate and White House.  “I think the majority of the party realizes that the ideological purity of some of the groups is a recipe for disaster and that candidly the attack on over-the-top wokeism was a valid attack,” Warner said. He expressed begrudging admiration for President Donald Trump’s ability to make outrageous statements without paying a political price and capture the attention of a public that largely ignores traditional media. “President Trump can say virtually anything and it’s forgotten within the same 24-hour news period, so that is a whine and a complaint, but it’s the reality,” Warner said. Trump also has a “reinforcing” social media army, Warner noted. “That’s extraordinary, and Democrats have got a lot to learn from that,” he said. With Democrats split between resisting Trump, allowing him to fail or finding common ground, Warner — the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat — said Trump cannot be given “a pass on actions that damage national security.” Along those lines, Warner ripped the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency effort for its raid on federal data, led by a cadre of young Elon Musk acolytes. He singled out one who Musk rehired in spite of reports he posted about his racist beliefs. “I have huge security concerns when you have 22-year-olds who may not even appreciate the value of the information theft being so careless,” he said.  Robbie Gramer contributed to this report.

The EU is in no mood to beg for favorable treatment in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda. Instead, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday mapped out an upbeat vision of the EU as an economic heavyweight that was beating the U.S. in many key respects and was open for business with countries such as Mexico and China — while Trump sets himself on a collision course with those nations. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in her first major policy address since Trump’s Nov. 20 inauguration for a second term, von der Leyen avoided direct criticism of the president but drew clear and stark contrasts with America, especially by underlining the EU’s commitment to the Paris climate pact that Washington is ditching. Europe, she said, still has the “biggest trading sector in the world” as well as “longer life expectancy, higher social and environmental standards, and lower inequalities than all our global competitors.” In contrast to the maverick strongarm tactics of Trump, Europe’s “large and attractive market” was a predictable partner, von der Leyen said. “With Europe, what you see is what you get. We play by the rules. Our deals have no hidden strings attached.” All in all, von der Leyen sought alliances rather than showdowns, particularly with those in Trump’s crosshairs. “Europe will keep seeking co-operation — not only with our long-time like-minded friends, but with any country we share interests with,” she stressed. As for Europe’s many problems — which range from war on its doorstep to industrial decline and a far-right surge — von der Leyen chose not to dwell on them. Instead, the German politician tried to inspire confidence in the bloc’s ability to change, laying out plans for reforms to be presented in February that aim to unify the bloc’s fragmented capital markets, slash red tape and foster world-beating companies. How she intends to enact those reforms at a time of increasing divisions among the bloc’s leaders is anyone’s guess. Overall, her Davos stump speech was as remarkable for what it didn’t say as for what it did. There was no mention of the far-right’s recent electoral successes in Europe, for example, nor even of Trump. The traditional encomium to the once-sacrosanct transatlantic relationship was another notable omission, while the war in Ukraine received only a passing reference. Instead, von der Leyen’s address was all about Europe as a global economic player, with prominent mentions of South America, Africa, China and India, where she intends to make her first major trip since being re-elected, and placed far less emphasis on the United States. Here’s how it went down in real-time: 1. THINGS ARE A LITTLE CRAZY, RIGHT NOW, OK? With a war raging in Ukraine and Trump in the White House, von der Leyen faced a challenge describing “the situation” without sending her audience into a clinical depression. She did this by staying aloof, describing a “new era of harsh geostrategic competition” in which Europe would have to get tougher. In classic EU form, von der Leyen pleaded with her audience to “avoid a race to the bottom” and not flout global rules to gain an economic edge over rivals. In almost the same breath, however, she recognized that the “cooperative world order” that Europe anticipated had never materialized, and that now was the time to get real. 2. BUT EUROPE HAS A LOT GOING FOR IT. PROMISE! Then came the pep talk. With Elon Musk’s X platform flooded with content attacking the EU as a declining museum resort, von der Leyen did her best to tout the bloc’s qualities. “We have a huge single market … unique social infrastructure … credible and independent institutions … [and] an unshakeable commitment to the rule of law.” Even the bloc’s ability to innovate was “under-appreciated,” she said, noting that Europe registers nearly as many patent applications as China and the U.S. Even so, she allowed, “the world is changing. So must we.” 3. DON’T WORRY. WE HAVE A PLAN. While everything is great in Europe, the place still needs a total overhaul — which von der Leyen pledged to kick off in February when she presents a big reform plan. This big leap will aim to unleash Europe’s economic might by unifying its fractured capital markets and channeling billions of euros in savings accounts toward investment. It will also aim to ease the bureaucratic burden on companies by giving them “one single set of rules” applicable across the union. Not mentioned: The fact that Europe’s leaders remain hopelessly divided on how to move forward, with multiple countries opposed to a capital markets union (an attempt to get the conversation started last year died miserably). 4. BTW, WE ARE STILL INTO THIS GLOBALIZATION THING. At a time when Trump is touting trade tariffs and “America First,” von der Leyen’s speech seemed designed to send the opposite signal: We’re open to doing business with anyone. Von der Leyen addressed potential trading partners directly, saying: “If there are mutual benefits in sight, we are ready to engage with you.” Indeed, a key message from the speech was that Europe wants to diversify its trading relationships away from America.  While Trump is declaring an emergency on America’s southern border and gearing up for tariffs against Mexico, von der Leyen gave special mention to EU trade relations with Latin America. At a time when Trump is touting trade tariffs and “America First,” von der Leyen’s speech seemed designed to send the opposite signal. | Morry Gash/AFP via Getty Images While acknowledging the economic threat from unfair Chinese trading practices, she also said Europe had to “engage constructively” with Beijing. 5. AMERICA? WHO? Tellingly, von der Leyen spoke about Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, China and India before her first mention of the United States. Even then, von der Leyen signaled the EU will be ready to stand its ground in any impending stand-off. “We will be pragmatic, but we will always stand by our principles. We will protect our interests and uphold our values — because that is the European way.” At the final reckoning, she hinted the EU might move out of its old diplomatic comfort zones and find new friends: “We must look for new opportunities wherever they arise. This is the moment to engage beyond blocs and taboos. And Europe is ready for change.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There’s a crackle of retribution in the air. Get on side — that’s the message from MAGA loyalists. And Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist and host of the influential “War Room” podcast, means to do everything he can to ensure that new converts, the belated joiners from the tech and banking sectors, aren’t able to sidetrack the movement as they now genuflect to Trump. Back in the day, the 71-year-old hunted Russian submarines in the Pacific as a naval surface warfare officer. “I wasn’t hunting boomers,” he told POLITICO — a reference to ballistic missile submarines. “We were hunting Soviet fast attack subs to protect the carrier battle group.” And today, his mission is to protect USS Trump from being diverted. That’s the fervent wish of Trump’s loyalists who flocked to D.C. for Monday’s presidential inauguration. Despite the brutally frigid temperature, which forced the swearing-in ceremony inside for the first time since 1985, the MAGA supporters who gathered in the capital were triumphant and giddy at Trump’s (at times, improbable) political resurrection. To see him back strikes them as confirming their time has truly come — that Trump 2.0 will turn the clock back to the future: No more liberal status quo and critical race theory. No more woke diversity and inclusion. No more forever wars and allies short-changing America. No more immigrants and no more green subsidies — just “drill, baby, drill.” Supporters could’ve hardly cared that many local residents in this heavily Democratic city were shunning inaugural attendees — they were too busy relishing the prospect of settling scores with Democrats and Republican turncoats. “If Biden thinks preemptive pardons are going to save them, he’s got another thing coming,” a middle-aged Trump acolyte from North Carolina, sporting a pair of red-white-and-blue MAGA Sneakers, told POLITICO. A Republican lawyer, attending a star-studded event hosted by conservative cable commentary site Newsmax, echoed the sentiment: “We’re already examining how we can get around any pardons Biden issues.” Along Pennsylvania Avenue, the Capital Grille restaurant — a longtime haunt of Republican lawmakers, their staff and GOP lobbyists — was crowded in the days leading up to the inauguration. “We did it,” chuckled a Trump donor as he surveyed his boisterous fellow revelers. The huge lobby bar at Trump’s old hotel, now the Astoria Waldorf, was packed too. There are two faces to any U.S. presidential inauguration. On one side are the rich, powerful and connected; the foreign dignitaries with supersized black SUVs cleared to whisk them through downtown’s locked-down security zone to inaugural parties and meetings. Then, there are the rank-and-file supporters of the winning party. Wearing transparent plastic raincoats, they have to brave the weather conditions and slosh around icy sidewalks, often being misdirected by police transferred from other cities and states to assist the security operation — it’s a far cry from the well-heeled taking high tea in the lobby of the Willard Hotel, listening to harp music a stone’s throw from the White House.  But with this inauguration, more than any other, there’s sense of a profound break with the past. The crowd who’ve descended on Washington, donning their red MAGA hats, Trump-adorned shirts and American-flag regalia, seem more like an army of sans-culottes — the working-class who played a significant role in the French Revolution. But with this inauguration, more than any other, there’s sense of a profound break with the past. | Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images They feel they’ve conquered, and they mean to take the nation’s capital back. Whether that’s how it will play out isn’t clear, though. As Trump bragged at a campaign-style pre-inaugural rally on Sunday night, his electoral coalition has expanded. Railing against his adversaries, from Democrats to journalists and immigrants to never-Trump Republicans, he promised his cheering supporters: “Once and for all, we’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington, a failed administration.” Other speakers at the raucous rally were even more belligerent, denouncing opponents who stood in Trump’s way. “They did everything they could to stop this movement, and they failed,″ Eric Trump, the president son, said. “Accountability is coming,” said senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller. “The whole federal bureaucracy is about to learn that they don’t work for themselves; they work for you, they work for President Trump, and they work for the American people. We are about to get our country back and our democracy back.” But a bigger coalition risks tensions and flare-ups. The MAGA crowd may like the spectacle of tech and Wall Street titans coming to them cap-in-hand, but who will co-opt who? Republicans have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but the five-seat majority they have in the House of Representatives will make life difficult — and Trump strategists have already walked away from attempting what Trump dubbed “one big, beautiful bill” to enact a huge raft of reforms. “At the moment Trump doesn’t have to choose between competing parts of his coalition,” Sean Spicer, a former Trump aide who served as press secretary for part of the president’s first term, told POLITICO. “There’s nothing making him have to pick … at the moment.”

LONDON — He may have once called Donald Trump a “tyrant in a toupee” but Britain’s top diplomat David Lammy was in full love-bombing mode Monday morning as the world awaits Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president. British Foreign Secretary Lammy — who lobbed multiple rhetorical hand grenades at Trump during his first term but now finds himself in a key U.K. government job — told BBC Radio 4 that he’d warmed to the president-elect in a face-to-face meeting last year. “The Donald Trump I met was a man who had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very friendly, very warm about the U.K., our royal family, Scotland,” Lammy said of the incoming Republican. While an MP in opposition, Lammy had branded the Republican a “tyrant in a toupee,” a “serial liar and a cheat,” “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic” — and “no friend of Britain.” Lammy has since distanced himself from those comments and talked up a friendship with incoming Vice President JD Vance, as well as a host of areas on which the U.K. and U.S. have been historic partners. Lammy said after Labour’s July election victory in the U.K.: “You are going to struggle to find any politician who didn’t have things to say about Donald Trump back in the day.” While an MP in opposition, David Lammy had branded the Republican a “tyrant in a toupee.” | Pool photo by Alberto Pezzali via WPA/Getty Images Lammy’s center-left boss, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, also laid it on thick Monday morning, sending his “warmest congratulations” to Trump and talking up the next U.S. commander-in-chief’s “long-standing affection and historical ties to the United Kingdom.” “We will continue to build upon the unshakeable foundations of our historic alliance as we tackle together the global challenges we face and take our partnership to the next level focused on shared opportunities ahead for growth,” said Starmer — who has publicly feuded with Trump donor and government efficiency pick Elon Musk — in an overnight statement. As is custom, Britain’s outgoing Ambassador to Washington Karen Pierce is the U.K. government’s sole representative at Trump’s inauguration Monday. But a host of Brits from the right of politics are in town to watch the action unfold. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and Conservative MP Suella Braverman will all be in Washington for the inauguration.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has Germany’s diplomatic corps bracing for what it sees as a deliberate dismantling of United States democratic norms. A confidential memorandum written by Andreas Michaelis, Germany’s ambassador to the U.S., warns of an agenda of “maximum disruption” that could redefine the American constitutional order. The document, obtained by Reuters and addressed to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, outlines stark concerns about the erosion of democratic norms under Trump’s second administration. Michaelis describes Trump’s vision as one focused on the “maximum concentration of power with the president at the expense of Congress and the [U.S.] states.” According to the document, key democratic institutions, including the legislature, law enforcement and the media, risk an erosion of their independence and could be “misused as a political arm.”  The memo also highlights the involvement of Big Tech companies, which Michaelis claims could be granted “co-governing power.” Publicly, Germany’s foreign ministry has taken a cautious tone, acknowledging the democratic choice of U.S. voters and expressing a willingness to work with the Trump government. The ministry hasn’t responded to a request from POLITICO for comment on the leaked memorandum. “We will work closely with the new U.S. administration in the interests of Germany and Europe,” the ministry said in a statement to Reuters. The ambassador’s internal assessment is far more critical. A lingering unease within Berlin about the broader implications of Trump’s domestic policies could signal a turbulent beginning for U.S.-German relations under the interim government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and Baerbock’s Green Party. This unease is not new — Trump’s first term saw contentious disputes over trade tariffs and Germany’s failure to meet NATO targets for defense spending. The warning from Michaelis suggests the stakes are now even higher. The briefing memo underscores Trump’s reliance on the judiciary to advance his goals. Michaelis notes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions to expand presidential powers could enable Trump to bypass traditional checks and balances. However, the ambassador offers a glimmer of reassurance, stating that “even the biggest critics assume that [the Supreme Court] will prevent the worst from happening.” The document further raises concerns about Trump’s ability to exploit legal loopholes for political ends. These include potentially using the military domestically in cases of “insurrection” or “invasion,” an act that could test the boundaries of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars military involvement in law enforcement. Michaelis also highlights Trump’s apparent alignment with tech billionaire Elon Musk as a potential risk to media independence. Trump has employed tactics like “lawsuits, threatening criminal prosecution, and license revocation” against critics, according to the report. Meanwhile, Musk is accused of manipulating algorithms and blocking accounts critical of his platform. The ambassador warns of a “redefinition of the First Amendment,” suggesting a troubling merger of political and technological influence. Musk’s behavior has already caused unease in Berlin. His public endorsements of the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of Germany’s election next month have raised fears of foreign interference. While individual agencies — like the ministry of defense — have left Musk’s platform, the German government remains active on X.