Key Takeaways
- Samuel Samson went from a 2021 college graduate with no foreign policy experience to Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor by age 27, a trajectory his colleagues attribute largely to his ties to Vice President J.D. Vance and the conservative group American Moment rather than professional expertise. Samson brought no qualifications to this position, with no significant experience in managing large offices or programs, policy, or foreign affairs.
- Samson has a pattern of courting far-right figures across Europe while condemning traditional allies. Since 2025, Samson has met with extremist and far-right politicians and parties, including the UK’s Nigel Farage, France’s National Rally, Germany’s AfD (designated extremist by German authorities), and Romania’s remigration-advocating Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor or AUR), while publicly framing European hate-speech laws and tech company content moderation as authoritarian overreach.
- Samson’s actions have real consequences for American diplomacy and goodwill abroad. In July 2026, Brazil denied visas to Samson and Assistant Secretary Riley Barnes ahead of a planned trip to scrutinize the country’s electronic voting system, with Brazilian officials viewing the visit as a U.S. attempt to sow doubt about election integrity months before a high-stakes presidential race.
Samuel Samson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, has a habit of accusing long-standing American allies of actions that have traditionally been the essence of American values. He says European governments silence dissent while he meets in secret with politicians who support remigration, a white supremacist policy concept akin to ethnic cleansing. He says Europe is turning into North Korea while defending authoritarian-leaning political parties. He says migration is “civilizational erasure,” while serving as a representative of the U.S., whose founding document has no concept of civilizational purity.
It is worth remembering that Samson is only 27 years old and had never worked in foreign policy before January 2025. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in connections, particularly to Vice President J.D. Vance, cultivated through a conservative youth group called American Moment, which most Americans have never heard of. That combination was apparently enough to catapult Samson in less than five years from writing for a newspaper in college to meetings with some of the most powerful people in the global far right.
Path to the State Department
Samson, a child of a Filipino-immigrant mother and an American-born father, was born in Boston in September 1998. He was raised in Houston, Texas, where he attended private Catholic schools. Samson credits his mother and her naturalization process for his conservative beliefs, saying, “She worked her butt off wanting to come to this country, and I think that’s a microcosm of why I’m a conservative.”
Samson was a self-described conservative from a young age. In 2013, Samson posted an image of toilet paper with then-President Barack Obama’s face on each sheet with the caption “Sorry to all of my liberal Facebook friends, but it had to be done. And it’s hilarious!” In high school, Samson used the slogan “Make SAC [Student Affairs Council] Great Again” in his 2016 run for a seat on the council, seeking to mimic then-candidate Trump’s campaign slogan. Samson also founded the “Young Conservatives Club” at his high school.
An image of toilet paper with then-President Barack Obama’s face on each sheet. The image was accompanied by the caption, “Sorry to all of my liberal Facebook friends, but it had to be done. And it’s hilarious!” The image was uploaded to a Facebook profile belonging to Samuel Samson. (Source: Facebook).
Samson graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government. According to his now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Samson’s “senior honors thesis” was titled “Conserving Conservatism: How the American Right Lost Its Way (And How To Find It Again).” Despite listing its publication in 2021, the thesis is not available through the university’s portal. It appears to have been available on Samson’s SoundCloud account at one time, but it has since been removed.
Other writings from his time at UT Austin can provide some insight into his thinking at the time. Samson wrote five articles in 2021 for The Texas Horn, an online conservative publication affiliated with the university. His first article was about January 6th, where he condemned the event as a “riot,” calling it the result of “American conservatism’s silent surrender to the culture of modernity.” He said the event was “brought to life” at least in part by some conservatives’ “near deification of the 45th President of the United States.”
In another article, titled “The Secularization of Modern Conservatism,” Samson argues that America is in a “cultural crisis” because modern conservatives have replaced their faith with “worship of material goods and temporal deities.” Samson also criticizes a section of Vice President J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, where Vance describes his childhood experience of rarely attending church and his grandmother’s “deeply personal (albeit quirky) faith.” Samson says this is an illustration of the “greatest problem within American secularization: the relativization of religion into something subjective and emotive.”
An image of Samuel Samson that accompanied a 2018 profile for The Daily Texan, UT Austin’s student newspaper. (Source: The Daily Texan).
All was not rosy at UT Austin, according to Samson. In a profile for the student newspaper, The Daily Texan, Samson claimed he was targeted with racial slurs, personal attacks, and death threats while on campus campaigning for Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He told the paper, “I can’t walk to class in a Reagan-Bush shirt without someone screaming f-bombs at me. That has definitely pushed me more to the activism side.”
After graduating, Samson moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a junior fellow for the Thomistic Institute, a group that seeks to “promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square.” The institute boasts 115 campus chapters across seven countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
After a year, Samson moved to work for American Moment, a conservative organization that aims to “identify, educate, and credential young Americans who will implement public policy that supports strong families, a sovereign nation, and prosperity for all.” Founded by some “twenty-somethings” (their description), American Moment sought to build a network of staunch conservatives ready to work in the second Trump administration and who would support his movement.
A still of Samuel Samson in a promotional video for American Moment, where he is identified as the “Former Director of Strategic Partnerships” for the organization. (Source: American Moment’s Website).
In an open letter published by the organization in 2020, American Moment decried the “establishment,” who they believe sabotaged the ideological goals of the first Trump Administration and “parasitized his presidency.” American Moment built strong relationships with very powerful allies, including now-Vice President J.D. Vance and Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs James Braid, both of whom served on the organization’s Board of Advisors. The group also aligned itself with The Heritage Foundation, officially joining Project 2025 in June 2022.
A recent Politico article about how the GOP is struggling to find competent young staffers for jobs in Washington, D.C., cited growing concern that the next generation being trained by organizations like Heritage and American Moment are not equipped for their roles. The article goes on to detail how these organizations value a rabid loyalty to “Trumpist ideology” over other types of expertise. The article also points out that American Moment rejects what it calls a “broken system” of elite credentialing, including a college degree, in its recruitment materials.
The State Department’s Ideological Attack Dog
American Moment, and its close connections to powerful Trump allies, is likely what helped Samson get the attention of the administration. After nearly three years with American Moment, Samson joined the U.S. Department of State in January 2025 as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Created in 1977 by Congress, the bureau has traditionally been tasked with promoting democracy, protecting human rights and international religious freedom, and advancing labor rights globally.
Samson has since transitioned into the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Samson’s new position is the third in line at the bureau. It is baffling as to how Samson was given this job. Many of his colleagues are mid- or later-career officials with substantial prior experience in foreign affairs or work at the State Department. The only other official on the same level that is near his age, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Global Public Affairs Serena Pfeiffer, had worked in the first Trump Administration at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
According to an organizational document from the State Department, Samson’s position is responsible for setting program goals and objectives, supervising staff, developing policy and advising on policy formulation relating to democracy, human rights, and labor, and coordinating policy with regional bureaus and embassies abroad. Deputy Assistant Secretaries for this bureau are also supposed to meet with Congress, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector to explain and build support for U.S. policy.
Experience in foreign policy (or policy in general) wasn’t a prerequisite for Samson’s hiring at the State Department, as he had none. According to a recent New York Times article, his colleagues in the bureau had to Google Samson when he first arrived for work. Samson reportedly told one official that he “knew the vice president” from working at American Moment. Armed with perceived backing from the Vice President, Samson came in “guns blazing,” complaining about everything from the name of the bureau to the United States being “too woke.”
Samson published what can best be described as a lengthy manifesto to the State Department’s official Substack account in May 2025, titled “The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe.” The post frames the United States’ relationship with Europe as a matter of shared “Western civilizational heritage” that is derived from “Athens and Rome, through medieval Christianity.” The piece casts European hate speech laws, online content moderation rules, and bans of extremist parties as evidence of a continent turning against its own people. Samson compared these policies to the “censorship, demonization, and bureaucratic weaponization” he believes conservatives have faced in the United States.
Samuel Samson’s piece on the official Substack of the U.S. Department of State. (Source: Substack).
The post was not particularly insightful. Samson argued the transatlantic partnership must be “founded upon our shared heritage rather than globalist conformity,” language lifted almost wholesale from the “civilizational” and anti-globalist vocabulary that far-right groups and politicians have spent years making mainstream. One commenter under the post put it bluntly: “Why is a kid who graduated college in 2021 and who has no foreign policy experience telling the world via Substack that this administration is mad about the world hating Nazis? Hilariously pathetic.”
Fighting with Our European Allies
People at the national level became aware of Samson last year amid his multiple trips to Europe to cozy up with the far right in multiple countries. Samson’s European tour was predicated on the claim that these countries were unfairly silencing conservatives and freedom of expression through policies like the European Union’s (EU) Digital Services Act (DSA). Many conservatives believe that the DSA’s restrictions on hate speech unfairly pressure social media companies to remove free speech out of fear of hefty fines. Vice President Vance said as much in his February 2025 speech to the Munich Security Conference, where he said the threat toward Europe he worries about most is not Russia or China, it is “the threat from within.”
Samson began his European visits in March 2025, when he met with Nigel Farage, one of Britain’s most prominent far-right politicians, in a secret meeting orchestrated by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a U.S.-based legal group at the heart of a powerful international network dedicated to advancing conservative policies including rolling back women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. ADF has an international arm, Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI), that works on similar cases around the world. Officials with knowledge of the meeting stated that the two discussed abortion buffer zones (areas around clinics where protesting is not allowed), censorship cases, and online safety laws. Samson also met with five individuals who were arrested for violating the UK’s abortion buffer zone laws, who are clients of ADFI.
In May of 2025, Le Monde, a French newspaper, published an article detailing how Samson met with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a non-governmental organization that advocates for freedom of the press. The meeting reportedly became tense quickly, with Samson arguing that France was muzzling its internal dissent, citing the April sentencing of Marine Le Pen for embezzlement of public funds. During the meeting, Mr. Samson said, “France was gradually becoming North Korea.”
Samson also met with leadership from Le Pen’s party, the National Rally, while in France. After returning from the trip, Samson had a new outlook on how to change France’s political landscape and went as far as to suggest using American taxpayer money to support Le Pen as she appeals the embezzlement conviction. A senior State Department official who saw the proposal said the claim that Samson was seeking to give Le Pen taxpayer money was “flat out false.”
Also in May 2025, Samson met with Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s new Media Commission. According to an article from the Erivgena Review, Samson outlined concerns with the EU’s DSA and threatened that “administrative measures,” like visa restrictions on Irish officials, could be implemented if those officials administer fines on social media companies for DSA violations.
In September 2025, Samson met with members of the German far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany or AfD). The AfD was designated as right-wing extremist by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in May 2025. The designation was challenged by AfD, and the group was granted an injunction earlier this year that changed their label from “confirmed extremist” to “suspected extremist.”
AfD has documented connections to far-right white nationalists such as the Neue Rechte (New Right), the white nationalist Identitarian movement, and the anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA. AfD also supports remigration, a white supremacist policy concept that calls for the forced removal of immigrants, refugees, and their descendants, including legal residents and citizens, based on race, ethnicity, culture, being perceived as “non-white,” or a failure to “assimilate.” In January 2026, AfD hosted Martin Sellner, an Austrian white nationalist and de facto leader of the “Identitarian Movement,” to give a talk titled “Remigration in theory and practice.”
Samson’s meeting with AfD included the usual complaints about European social media regulation and the AfD’s fear that Germany could ban their party. The group also allegedly discussed the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, complaining that mainstream European leaders were seeking to replace white people with nonwhite immigrants. AfD member Joachin Paul described the American delegation’s enthusiasm for the conversation; “I got the impression — partly from the length of the conversation — that they were very interested in hearing from us. They took a lot of notes.”
In December 2025, Samson provided a digital press briefing while on a Central European tour of multiple countries. In his opening remarks, Samson stated that he was on the trip “regarding concerns” about “key fundamental Western virtues and values.” During this trip, Samson traveled to Hungary where he gave a speech to the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (Magyar Külügyi Intézet), a non-profit research institute and “think tank” owned by the Hungarian state that was, at the time, controlled directly by the office of far-right then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose regime was described as an “electoral autocracy” by the European Union parliament.
A still of Samuel Samson speaking at a Hungarian Institute of International Affairs event in December 2025. (Source: The Hungarian Conservative).
Samson argued that Hungary was a bastion of free speech and expression, stating that other European countries are too forgiving of a “sprawling regulatory apparatus that cloaks repression under the guise of ‘progress’ and ‘public safety.’” He added that many European countries no longer uphold their values of “free speech and self-governance,” and instead have become countries “destabilized by mass migration, where bureaucratic institutions are weaponized to stifle disfavored views, and legal systems are used to silence political opponents.”
Samson’s Crusade Continues
Samson has not slowed down his crusade in recent months; in some ways, he has become bolder with the domestic and European groups he seeks to align himself with. In June 2026, Samson met with Cezar-Victor Năstase, an extreme far-right politician in Romania. Năstase is a member of Romania’s Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor or AUR), a far-right populist party that believes, among other bigoted things, in ethnic-based nationhood, supporting “traditional values,” and pushing conservative Christian values to shape society.
Cezar-Victor Năstase, a far-right Romanian politician, in a video promoting remigration. (Source: X).
Năstase is also an advocate for remigration. His pinned post on X is a video of himself posted by Turning Point UK, which he captioned “Generation #REMIGRATION.” In the video, Năstase stands in front of a statue of Vlad the Impaler and calls him “a famous warrior of Christiandom against Islamist expansion.” He furthered that modern-day Europe is facing the same problem, claiming there is a “wave of Islamist immigration” and there is only one solution: “remigration, save the nation.”
In his post about the meeting, Năstase said it was a “practical, substantive discussion” about Romania and “the political situation of Europe’s conservative, patriotic, and sovereignist families.” Năstase ended the post with “We will defeat the globalist colossus!”
Samuel Samson pictured with Cezar-Victor Năstase, a far-right Romanian politician. (Source: Instagram)
In June 2026, Samson spoke in London at a joint event hosted by The Heritage Foundation, the Claremont Institute, and the Conservative Partnership Institute, where he delivered a speech titled “The Indispensable Civilizational Alliance,” which was later published by the Claremont Institute’s American Mind. The speech leaned even harder into racist tropes of migrants and the promotion of blood-and-soil nationalism, a concept that ties ethnic identity (“blood”) to a specific national territory (“soil”). Samson invoked the “Anglo-Saxon courage” that “President Trump hailed during King Charles’s visit in April,” calling it “a unique and distinctive gift of our common inheritance, running through the veins of Americans and British alike.”
The speech’s real target, though, was immigrants. Samson called mass migration “the leading edge of civilizational erasure,” arguing that “a people is not an interchangeable population” and that admitting “large numbers of alien peoples is not to enrich Western civilization but to dissolve it.” He accused Western leaders who support immigration of “oikophobia — guilt, self-hatred, and all-consuming hostility toward one’s own homeland,” a term borrowed from the paleoconservative philosopher Roger Scruton, and increasingly common in far-right intellectual circles.
In late July 2026, Brazil denied visas to two senior U.S. State Department officials, Assistant Secretary Riley Barnes and Samson, for a trip to Brazil where they planned to scrutinize the fairness of the country’s electoral system ahead of the October 2026 presidential election. Brazilian officials saw the visit as an attempt to undermine confidence in the country’s electronic-voting system just months before Lula da Silva faces off against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the imprisoned former president. The delegation had planned to visit the capital and cast doubt on the integrity of the voting system before the fall election, according to officials briefed on the trip.
Samuel Samson’s rise, from posting Obama toilet paper memes as a teenager to a senior advisor on U.S. human rights policy, was never about his experience. It was about his connections and mindset. Within months of arriving at the State Department with no foreign policy background, he was meeting with a designated extremist party in Germany and far-right figures across Europe, all while pretending his racist ethnic nationalism is a “civilization
