#rp25 speaker Annika Brockschmidt: USA update

With statements on ‘reclaiming’ the Panama Canal, annexing Greenland and Canada or expelling millions of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip - Donald Trump has dominated the media, and not just since the beginning of his term. During his first days in office, he signed more decrees than any previous US president. Annika Brockschmidt calls this an ‘administrative coup d'état’. The speed of Steve Bannon's ‘flood the zone with shit’ media strategy has a method - namely to create distraction and mental overload.

Many of the radical ‘Project 2025’ plans that he has implemented with Elon Musk's (unconstitutional) help have already noticeably changed the country. It is true that the modern right in the USA is united by an anti-democratic mindset. But beyond that, these individual groups — from tech oligarchs to Christian nationalists — have more differences than similarities when it comes to their larger vision. At #rp25, the publicist and historian will analyse the current situation in the USA and provide an insight into the ideologies behind the current Trump administration.

Annika Brockschmidt is a freelance author and historian. She writes for various media in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and her texts have appeared in the Tagesspiegel, Freitag, taz and Zeit Online, amongst others. She is a senior correspondent for the US magazine Religion Dispatches, which is part of the renowned think tank Political Research Associates that has been researching right-wing extremism for over thirty years. She has also written three books, including two Spiegel bestsellers: "Amerikas Gotteskrieger. Wie die Religiöse Rechte die Demokratie gefährdet” (‘America's God Warriors. How the religious right is jeopardising democracy’) and "Die Brandstifter. Wie Extremisten die Republikanische Partei übernahmen" ('Die Brandstifter. How Extremists Took Over the Republican Party').

She finds good humour in bad times by watching reality TV, from the US Bachelor to Real Housewives, and by producing podcasts such as the "Bätchcast" with Anja Rützel and "Feminist Shelf Control" with Rebekka Endler, in which the two discuss romance novels, sex, relationships and pop culture from a feminist perspective.