Perspective: "Civilizational" Allies and Learning to Speak MAGA
May 31, 2025
European Embassies in Washington, including Moldova, are talking to lobbyists and Canada has hired one to help them navigate “conservative media.” Moldova is sending a new Ambassador to the US - most likely due to the change in administration. Europe is trying to figure out how to navigate the new MAGA world and changing geopolitical landscape.
This week luminaries of the MAGA and MEGA movements converged in Poland for the first Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in that country. The conference has been held annually since 1974 and since 2017 has been held outside the US multiple times including twice in Europe - both times in Hungary. Poland is only the second European setting for the gathering.
Either by plan or coincidence the conference this year was held on May 26-27, the same week as Poland’s second round presidential elections which will be held this Sunday. In that race centrist Rafał Trzaskowski of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform is facing off against far-right Law and Justice candidate Karol Nawrocki in a race that is currently too close to call.
At the CPAC conference, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gave a speech saying that "You will be the leaders that will turn Europe back to conservative values." and called on Polish voters to go to the polls in support of Karol Nawrocki. She called Trzaskowski "an absolute train wreck of a leader" and said that under Nawrocki Poland would have a strong supporter in the United States. Other speeches railed against “globalists” and sought to portray the election in terms of a civilizational battle.
Just a few months ago the direct intervention of a US Cabinet Official in a foreign election would have been unthinkable. Now, House Republicans and MAGA affiliated politicians are all making their voices heard to try and sway the outcome of an ally’s election and to denigrate the EU.
America’s “Civilizational Allies”
This week the US State Department put out an essay titled “The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe.” It was posted on the department’s new Substack newsletter which has previously hosted essays from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. This essay was written by Samuel Samson, billed as a Senior Advisor for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Previously this department advocated for those core American values around the world.
Also this week, Politico reported that Secretary Rubio was advancing plans to essentially eliminate the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Priorities have changed.
In his essay, Samson starts with lofty words, tracking the American-European “Western civilizational heritage” through thinkers such as “Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and other European heavyweights.” He goes on to cite JD Vance’s “enemies within” speech at Munich and alleges “an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself” that he says is unfolding across Europe. Samson then calls out the alleged repression of groups that he seems to indicate represent those “civilizational allies” - Germany’s AfD, France’s Marine LePen, Hungary’s Victor Orban and right wing groups (unnamed) in Romania and Poland.
I wrote about how the MAGA movement was engaging with Europe back in February - calling it a revolutionary ideological movement determined to spread. You can read that piece here:
Now, months later with more than a few indicators backing up this thesis, we have to acknowledge a fact - the United States government, its officers and politicians within the MAGA movement, are seeking to interfere in the outcome of democratic elections in Europe. They are seeking to promote anti-democratic forces in those elections and they are spreading lies and half-truths to discredit those who oppose their movement and international organizations such at the European Union.
Also true is that the language of the US government has fundamentally changed. What is “civilizational heritage?” How are these marks supposed to be interpreted?
Moldova has an election in September - so what can be done about this? Interestingly, this week showed evidence that the Moldovan government is taking a few steps to try and adapt to this new reality.
First up, is an interesting story about how some foreign embassies in DC seem to be trying to learn the language of MAGA.