President Trump hailed a 'really big night' for Germany's AfD after the populist party's historic state election win in Saxony-Anhalt, where the CDU collapsed from 40 seats to 15.
President Donald Trump celebrated a political earthquake in Germany on Tuesday night, hailing the Alternative for Germany (AfD) after the party posted a historic victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The result has shattered the state's old political order and handed the anti-mass-immigration party its strongest showing anywhere in the country.
"Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "They finally got tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules and regulations which have hurt Germany so badly. THEY ARE ON THE RISE, and not going to take it anymore! MGGA!!!"
Voters went to the polls in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, and the AfD delivered a result that stunned the German establishment. The party took 43.8 percent of the vote, more than doubling its showing from the 2021 state election, and secured 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament in Magdeburg.
The blow to the establishment Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was staggering. The party that had governed the state crashed from 40 seats to just 15, its worst result in decades and a collapse of roughly 25 seats in a single cycle. The CDU's Sven Schulze, the outgoing state governor, offered a terse concession and congratulated the AfD on its victory.
The AfD's gains leave the party just three seats short of an outright majority, raising the prospect of Germany's first populist-led state government since World War II.
Trump framed the outcome as part of a broader rebellion against open-border policies that have reshaped European politics. In his post, the president credited the AfD's surge directly to public frustration with Germany's immigration rules, which he argued have inflicted real damage on the country.
AfD leaders in Saxony-Anhalt made the same case. Ulrich Siegmund, the party's parliamentary co-chair in the state, credited an unlikely campaign helper: Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "Things cannot carry on like this," Siegmund told state broadcaster ARD, adding that "a very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz."
National AfD co-leader Alice Weidel called the result "sensational" and said the party's "hand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward."
Trump's words landed hard in Berlin, where establishment parties are scrambling to respond to the AfD's breakthrough. Dirk Wiese, chief whip for the center-left Social Democrats in the Bundestag, called the president's comments "not acceptable" and said the federal government should not simply tolerate them.
German party leaders have spent years trying to quarantine the AfD behind a so-called firewall, refusing any coalition or cooperation with the party. The CDU, Social Democrats, Left Party, and Greens all won seats in Sunday's election, and each has publicly ruled out working with the AfD. CDU general secretary Franziska Hoppermann dismissed the party as "a right-wing extremist party" that would trigger "economic downfall" and warned against any cooperation.
That firewall now collides with basic math. With 39 seats of their own, the AfD's only realistic path to government runs through the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a left-populist splinter that won five seats in the new parliament.
The coming weeks will determine whether the firewall holds or cracks under the weight of the election result. If the AfD and BSW can reach an agreement, Germany would see its first state government led by the populist right since 1945 -- a watershed moment that would reverberate far beyond Saxony-Anhalt ahead of the next federal election cycle.
Trump's embrace of the result signals that the White House sees the German shift as part of the same populist momentum that carried him back to power in the United States. The AfD, which backs stricter immigration enforcement, opposes further German military aid to Ukraine, and wants sanctions on Russia lifted, has long been viewed with alarm by Brussels and Berlin alike.
For now, the old guard is left to reckon with a simple reality: in Saxony-Anhalt, the voters had their say, and the populists came out on top.
President Trump hailed a 'really big night' for Germany's AfD after the populist party's historic state election win in Saxony-Anhalt, where the CDU collapsed from 40 seats to 15.
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