Naomi Seibt, a well-known far-right German influencer who calls herself the "anti-Thunberg," has applied for asylum in the United States, citing political persecution and threats to her safety. Earlier, the Donald Trump administration said it would consider giving asylum priority to "white refugees" in Europe to protect them.
According to the Washington Post (WP) on the 9th local time, Seibt met with Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Oct. 30 to discuss the asylum process. Luna said she is directly helping President Trump with Seibt's asylum application, saying Seibt is being persecuted for supporting the values of liberal democracy, and noted that a related SEOHAN ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION was also delivered to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Seibt is a supporter of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and a conservative influencer with more than 450,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and more than 110,000 on YouTube and other social media (SNS). After Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution designated AfD as a far-right extremist organization, she moved from Germany to the United States. Born in 2000, she is often described as standing opposite Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist of the same generation.
In particular, Seibt has directly rebutted warnings about climate change and expanded her base of support to the United States. She has launched a fierce attack on climate change claims as a "cowardly, anti-human ideology," and criticized Thunberg by arguing that scientists have grossly exaggerated the impact of carbon emissions on Earth's climate and saying she is "spreading panic and fear." In 2020, she also took the stage as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington.
Regarding the asylum application, Seibt said she received death threats from the antifa (far-left anti-fascist social movement) group but the police did not protect her, adding that her life would be at risk if she returned to Germany. According to Seibt, she is the first German to apply for political asylum since President Trump took office, and the application has been officially filed.
It is classified as a highly unusual case for a public figure from a Western European country to request protection and even apply for asylum in the United States for political reasons. U.S. immigration law recognizes asylum only when there is a well-founded fear of persecution due to beliefs and other reasons, and some suggest that Seibt's circumstances may not meet the criteria.
Michael Kagan, an immigration law professor at the University of Nevada, said Germany is a democratic country where the rule of law and freedom of expression are guaranteed, and asylum from such countries is rarely approved, but added that the United States' broad concept of freedom of expression could lead to an exceptional interpretation in this case.
In fact, in recent years the Trump administration has opened the door to whites who say they were persecuted by what is called "political populism." A representative example is approving refugee applications from dozens of white South Africans who claimed persecution by a government that espouses "black supremacy."
According to a State Department official, the Trump administration is also considering granting refugee application opportunities to "free speech advocates in Europe" who are being targeted for expressing anti-populist views online. In response, the State Department Spokesperson said the United States is concerned that censorship by EU bureaucrats and governments is intensifying and will stand in solidarity with Europeans who defend freedom of expression.
The closeness between the Trump administration and Germany's far-right forces is becoming more pronounced. Vice President JD Vance sparked controversy at the Munich Security Conference in February by saying it runs counter to democracy for Germany's mainstream parties to refuse a coalition with AfD, and contacts between Republican figures and AfD lawmakers are continuing.
Rep. Luna met last month with AfD lawmaker Anna Leidhardt, and Alex Bruesewitz, known as a close aide to President Trump, also said at a recent AfD parliamentary seminar that conservatives need to reclaim the global narrative.
Meanwhile, Seibt claimed she is also in contact with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. She said she arranged a conversation between Musk and AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, emphasizing that she is a bridge linking the conservative camps in Germany and the United States. In fact, in December, Musk showed public support by reposting Seibt's video backing AfD on X.