'Unprecedented': Trump's "America First" agenda was 'slogan of Nazi sympathisers in 1930s America'

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00:00Next, a man who has been suspected of underage sex with a teenage girl has been named by

00:06Donald Trump as the next Attorney General of the United States.

00:09Matt Goetz is a Trump loyalist.

00:11He resigned from Congress on Wednesday, two days before an Ethics Committee investigation

00:16into alleged impropriety was due to be released.

00:19Goetz has been involved in a lot of scandals over his seven years in Congress, many with

00:23his fellow Republicans.

00:25Here at France 24, Oliver Farrie.

00:29Even among far-right Republicans, Matt Goetz stands out as a firebrand and his nomination

00:34as Donald Trump's Attorney General has taken Washington by surprise.

00:38Since being first elected to Congress in 2017, the Florida native has been regularly mired

00:43in controversy.

00:45Goetz was accused of child sex trafficking and statutory rape in 2020, though the Department

00:50of Justice decided not to press charges.

00:53He has also been accused of illicit drug use and of using campaign funds for personal use.

00:59Goetz has regularly peddled conspiracy theories such as the white nationalist Great Replacement.

01:04He has also claimed that the January 6th, 2021 riots when Donald Trump's supporters

01:10overran the Capitol in Washington were a government setup.

01:14Congresswoman Greene and I are not here to celebrate January 6th.

01:20We're not here to obsess about it, but we are here to expose the truth, to ask key questions

01:26about what happened on January 6th, who animated the violence, the extent to which the federal

01:32government may have been involved.

01:34In October 2023, he led a putsch within the House Republicans to replace Speaker Kevin

01:39McCarthy with Mike Johnson, the latter of whom gave his support to Goetz on Wednesday.

01:45I got to know Matt very well.

01:47Look, I'll say this, everyone who served with him will tell you he's one of the most intelligent

01:51members of Congress.

01:53He's an accomplished attorney.

01:55He's very concerned about the lawfare that has been occurring in the Department of Justice

01:59under the Biden administration.

02:01But Matt Goetz is also deeply unpopular among many Republicans in Congress, notably for

02:06his role in the leadership heave against McCarthy.

02:10Some have already expressed skepticism that his nomination would receive the 50 votes

02:14needed to get confirmed by the Senate.

02:17Goetz resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on Wednesday night, which in turn ended a House

02:22Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations hanging over him.

02:26The committee was due to release its report on Friday.

02:29Oliver Farris setting us up for the interview with Andrew Yarrow, journalist and historian,

02:35also former script writer in the Clinton White House.

02:37Andrew, thanks for being with us.

02:40What's your take on Donald Trump's appointments so far, starting with, of course, the new

02:43attorney general?

02:44Well, I think Matt Goetz is a pretty scary appointment.

02:50It's pretty shocking that somebody who really has skirted the edges of the law himself may

02:58be the chief law enforcement officer in the United States.

03:03Going forward, Goetz is certainly going to end the prosecutions of Trump and probably

03:12shut down the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, if Smith doesn't resign before then.

03:19I think it's a difficult time ahead for the United States with appointments like Goetz.

03:25Is it a sense, Andrew, what we're seeing from Donald Trump is that if you're his friend,

03:31you're in.

03:32If you contribute a lot of money, you're in.

03:34If you are, how can I put it, a competent politician or a competent administrator, chances

03:41are you're at the back of the queue.

03:43Well, I think that's probably right.

03:48I mean, Trump had some competent administrators in his first term.

03:53Many of those people turned against him in this election campaign.

03:59His former chief of staff, John Kelly, suggested that he had fascist tendencies.

04:06I don't think those kinds of people will be around in this term.

04:09He's already showing that with his appointments.

04:14His appointment for the defense secretary, for the EPA administrator.

04:20So many of his appointments, Elise Stefanik, a hard right Republican, as the UN ambassador.

04:29It spells difficult times ahead.

04:32Those names, let me just read them out for the viewers.

04:35Elise Stefanik, UN ambassador, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, and you're

04:39alluding there to Pete Hegseth, defense secretary.

04:43Some might say these people do not have the experience as required for these august posts.

04:50That's right.

04:51Pete Hegseth is 44 years old.

04:55Yes, he's been in the military.

04:57He had served in the National Guard in Guantanamo.

05:01He'd served in Afghanistan.

05:06But whether somebody whose main qualification has been as a Fox News presenter and supporter

05:14of Donald Trump is qualified to lead the Defense Department, to lead the most important and

05:21strongest military in the world, I think will scare a lot of people.

05:28And that situation, Marco Rubio as secretary of state, these people will have a real influence

05:35in what goes on next in Ukraine.

05:38And clearly, Trump is employing people who are more or less just mirroring his views.

05:43Exactly.

05:44I mean, the entire Republican Party has been captured by Donald Trump over the last nine

05:49years, certainly in this election cycle, it has been.

05:55And what it will mean for Ukraine, I mean, we still don't really know what happened in

05:59that phone call with Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Zelensky.

06:04The other day, I mean, we could be surprised, but I think it's a wake up call for Europe.

06:14Being here in France these last months teaching, I know that a lot of French people, a lot

06:21of Europeans are worried about what the Trump administration will mean for Europe, both

06:28in terms of security and economically, in terms of the tariffs he's threatened to impose,

06:3510 percent tariffs, even on allies here in Europe.

06:40That issue on all levels, like you say, Europe is concerned regarding the military aspects,

06:46regarding the commercial aspects.

06:48And clearly, this is in some ways taking the relationship between the U.S. and Europe,

06:53I was going to say back 10 years, but it's more.

06:56It's back to back to almost a pre-war kind of set up.

07:00Yes.

07:01Yeah, that's true.

07:02I mean, speaking of a pre-war set up, Trump's slogan, America first, was the slogan of of

07:10Nazi sympathizers in 1930s America.

07:17It's unprecedented in the post-war world to have someone who is so skeptical of America's

07:24long historic relationship with Europe.

07:27France, of course, is America's oldest ally.

07:31The U.S. has been supported, was supported by the French in our revolution.

07:37The U.S. has come to the aid of Europe and liberated Europe, helped liberate Europe in

07:42World War II.

07:45And of course, our support in World War I, during the Cold War as well.

07:50And to have somebody who questions the value of NATO, I think a lot of Europeans should

07:57be worried.

07:58All Europeans should be worried.

08:00Because it's, I think it's fair to say that the presence of NATO was something that has

08:05assured in many ways peace in Europe since the Second World War.

08:10That's right.

08:11That's right.

08:12NATO has assured that.

08:14America's been the backbone of NATO.

08:17Yes, Trump has pushed, as other Americans have pushed, for greater European spending

08:24on defense.

08:25But many European countries have increased their spending.

08:30France itself, the current government in France, has talked about taking more responsibility,

08:36the EU taking more responsibility for defense.

08:39Sure, that's important.

08:41But the American alliance is so important to Europe.

08:46And if Europe were to lose America as an ally, I think that would be a tragedy, a historic

08:54tragedy.

08:55And it would take a long time to come back from.

08:58Andrew Yarrow, we need to leave it there.

09:00Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

09:01Andrew Yarrow, journalist and historian, former scriptwriter in the Clinton White House, teaching

09:04in France.

09:05Thank you for taking time out to speak to us here at France 24.

09:08We appreciate your time, sir.

09:10Thank you so much.

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