Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump exploited existing racist and xenophobic sentiments across his base. Since he launched his election bid 18 months ago, a number of hate crimes have carried out by whites who openly admitted being inspired by Trump’s rhetoric. Since the election, racial and religious minorities have reported being targets in an unprecedented number of attacks.
Now the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has warned that right-wing terrorists in his country are likely networking internationally—including with hate group members in the United States—to carry out more race and religion-based attacks. Hans-Georg Maassen, who leads the Verfassungsschutz, talked to Reuters about concerns that groups sharing extremist views—in the U.S., this likely includes those emboldened by Trump’s run—may link, creating “right-wing terrorist cells.”
“This is not just purely a German phenomenon,” Maassen told Reuters. “The right-extremist scene is networking on a European level, and in some cases, with connections in the United States.”