Ben Rhodes

center thing it's just like speaking with some conviction appeals to people and i'm glad she's going to clearly be a voice and maybe she can be the oppositionist who can gather some intensity so it's not just afd so what you don't want is that there's a big coalition government and all the energy of opposition goes to the right right maybe she can capture some of that on the left that'd be good the last thing we should talk about though is that mertz in that interview

said some pretty radical things, right?

said some pretty radical things, right?

said some pretty radical things, right?

Okay, so let's go to that.

Okay, so let's go to that.

Okay, so let's go to that.

Yeah. Well, I thought that was an absolutely astonishing, albeit maybe not surprising, statement from him. First of all, this is a right-wing guy. I mean, right-wing for the CDU. And this is not a guy that seems enthusiastic about Elon Musk.

Yeah. Well, I thought that was an absolutely astonishing, albeit maybe not surprising, statement from him. First of all, this is a right-wing guy. I mean, right-wing for the CDU. And this is not a guy that seems enthusiastic about Elon Musk.

Yeah. Well, I thought that was an absolutely astonishing, albeit maybe not surprising, statement from him. First of all, this is a right-wing guy. I mean, right-wing for the CDU. And this is not a guy that seems enthusiastic about Elon Musk.

side note i hate that this guy who's a white south african guy is like the american that everybody's talking about but put that aside well you see tesla's down eight percent today because they had really weak sales in europe in part because of this yeah of course but he you know he's he this is not a victory for trump right uh trump's party there is the afd the republican party's sister party in germany is the afd let's be clear about that

side note i hate that this guy who's a white south african guy is like the american that everybody's talking about but put that aside well you see tesla's down eight percent today because they had really weak sales in europe in part because of this yeah of course but he you know he's he this is not a victory for trump right uh trump's party there is the afd the republican party's sister party in germany is the afd let's be clear about that

side note i hate that this guy who's a white south african guy is like the american that everybody's talking about but put that aside well you see tesla's down eight percent today because they had really weak sales in europe in part because of this yeah of course but he you know he's he this is not a victory for trump right uh trump's party there is the afd the republican party's sister party in germany is the afd let's be clear about that

So it's interesting to me that even a kind of right wing center right politician in Europe is like, you know, stay the fuck out. I mean, to compare Elon Musk to Russia interfering in German politics is a pretty powerful statement. And I think what this suggests is there is going to be a rapid realignment in Europe. Now, how that plays out, we don't know.

So it's interesting to me that even a kind of right wing center right politician in Europe is like, you know, stay the fuck out. I mean, to compare Elon Musk to Russia interfering in German politics is a pretty powerful statement. And I think what this suggests is there is going to be a rapid realignment in Europe. Now, how that plays out, we don't know.

So it's interesting to me that even a kind of right wing center right politician in Europe is like, you know, stay the fuck out. I mean, to compare Elon Musk to Russia interfering in German politics is a pretty powerful statement. And I think what this suggests is there is going to be a rapid realignment in Europe. Now, how that plays out, we don't know.

But he was indicating essentially that Europe needs its own defense capabilities. But in a meaningful way. He was talking almost about nuclear issues. Germany is obviously not a nuclear weapons power, but Britain and France are. Maybe some collective security arrangement could be made where they're not relying on the American nuclear security umbrella.

But he was indicating essentially that Europe needs its own defense capabilities. But in a meaningful way. He was talking almost about nuclear issues. Germany is obviously not a nuclear weapons power, but Britain and France are. Maybe some collective security arrangement could be made where they're not relying on the American nuclear security umbrella.

But he was indicating essentially that Europe needs its own defense capabilities. But in a meaningful way. He was talking almost about nuclear issues. Germany is obviously not a nuclear weapons power, but Britain and France are. Maybe some collective security arrangement could be made where they're not relying on the American nuclear security umbrella.

That's a huge conversation. And it would totally change geopolitics if essentially Europe says, we are not going to depend on the United States to be our security guarantee anymore. We're going to be our own security guarantee."