Senior Trump official extends a hand of friendship to Europe’s far right
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The coverage treats any discomfort with Europe’s speech and immigration regimes as “hostility to liberal democracy. ” That framing is convenient, but it assumes the only respectable posture is deference to Brussels and elite consensus. What’s being missed is that many European “hate speech” systems are not about civility.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
US state department’s Sarah B Rogers publicly attacks policies on hate speech and immigration in other countriesAs Donald Trump redoubled his war of words on the European Union and Nato in recent weeks, a senior state department official, Sarah B Rogers, was publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies, and promoting far-right parties abroad.Rogers has arguably become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies.
Since assuming office in October, she has met with far-right European politicians, criticized prosecutions under longstanding hate speech laws, and boasted online of sanctions against critics of hate speech and disinformation on US big tech platforms.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The coverage treats any discomfort with Europe’s speech and immigration regimes as “hostility to liberal democracy.” That framing is convenient, but it assumes the only respectable posture is deference to Brussels and elite consensus.
What’s being missed is that many European “hate speech” systems are not about civility. They are about state power over speech, backed by prosecutions and platform pressure that would alarm any serious defender of civil liberty. Calling that out is not extremism; it is clarity about where public trust collapses when ordinary citizens feel policed for dissent.
On immigration, the real issue is sovereign borders and social cohesion, not virtue signaling. Allies can still be friends while disagreeing, especially when national security and stability are on the line.
The principle at stake is simple: durable alliances rest on shared rights and self-government, not on enforcing one ideological model across the West.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.