Shea Bradley-Farrell: If You Want to Settle in a Country, You Must Adapt to Its Norms

If someone wants to settle in another country, they must adapt to the norms of the host nation. But that is not what’s happening in Europe — and it poses a serious threat to the citizens of individual member states," said Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, an American foreign and security policy expert and president of the conservative think tank Counterpoint Institute, in an interview with our newspaper. "In France and Germany, for instance, no-go zones already exist, and in the United Kingdom, Sharia law — the Islamic legal code — has taken precedence in some cases. It’s mind-boggling to me that sovereign nation-states would allow this." Dr. Bradley-Farrell visited Budapest as an invited speaker at CPAC Hungary 2025.

Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, president of the conservative think tank Counterpoint Institute (Photo: Sandor Csudai)

Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell is an American foreign and security policy expert, president of the conservative think tank Counterpoint Institute, and a former advisor to the Trump administration. As a staunch advocate for securing the U.S. southern border, protecting national sovereignty and preserving Western civilization, she traveled to Budapest this year as an invited speaker at the CPAC Hungary conference. In her latest book, Last Warning to the West, she delivers a sharp critique of the spread of cultural Marxism and woke ideology, which she believes are a fundamental threat to the survival of the Western world. In our interview, she also addressed topics such as migration, radical left-wing ideology, antisemitism, and the role of the media. 

Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, American foreign and security policy expert, speaks with Magyar Nemzet at the CPAC Hungary 2025 conference (Photo: Sandor Csudai)

– In an analysis you wrote in 2022, you highlighted that - when it comes to Ukraine - the Democrats led by Biden declared that every nation’s borders and sovereignty must be respected, but somehow this principle did not translate to the United States' southern border. Now, with Trump back in power, what's changed? Are the cartels, the drugs and illegal migration less of a palpable problem today?

– It is night and day from where it was. And I actually go down to the southern border. I don't just sit in Washington D.C. and write policy papers about border security. Quite often I took trips for weeks down to the southern border to watch what was going on. And we had no border security under Biden. In the article you're referring to, the point was that while the EU and the Biden administration were so bent on securing Ukraine's borders, they left all of our borders wide open in the United States, to mass illegal immigration. We now have almost 20 million people in our country, that we simply don't know who they are, and we don't know where they are. But of course, President Trump and Tom Homan, they're doing a fantastic job. 

So while we were having hundreds of thousands of people coming across every month, they've taken that down to almost nothing. This is a reduction of about 90 or more percent.

We're succeeding, but the problems we face are similar to what you have here in Europe, because many of these people obviously are still in our country. I did a lot of research on what kind of people were coming across: there were over 200,000 Chinese coming across our orders illegally. The Chinese are adversarial to the United States. They have a whole government campaign to actually destroy our infrastructure, which is a strong concern. But there were also hundreds of thousands of people coming from terrorist states or terrorist-connected nations through our borders illegally. And we don't know who they are. So, my concern is, well, we may have a terrorist attack soon in the United States.

If you look at Hungary, you have had no terrorism because PM Orban in 2015 said, enough, we're not going to accept mass migration. 

But France, Britain, all these other nation states are dealing with the problem of terrorism.

Migration and Terrorism: Is There a Connecetion?

– In Europe’s pro-migration countries, is terrorism a side-effect of mass illegal migration?

– Absolutely yes, in my view. Now, research has not proven this yet, because there has been no research done to really address the connection between the two. However, I do think that there’s a connection, and I've looked into this. But under the Biden administration, our crime rates, our criminal acts went up. I can't remember the exact numbers, it's by something crazy, like 70 percent, previously. However, under the first Trump administration, who closed and secured our borders, crime had gone down. Also, I know from my research that there were hundreds of thousands of criminals released into the United States, because we didn't have enough beds for them when they came to the U.S. illegally. So, of course, there's a connection. Anybody who says there's not, they're really being silly. 

– You also criticized the pro-Palestinian protests at universities. What’s behind these protests, and does Israel have a right to self-defense? 

– I think the current administration is going to be very hard on this, whereas the Biden administration never solved this issue. They allowed it, because Biden thought it would give him more votes. And it is a tragic, horrible situation. In fact, just last week, I believe, two people at the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. were shot and killed. This is unacceptable. 

And, at the root of the problem are the universities, and what they are teaching to our children. Quite frankly, it goes back to a Marxist ideology, where they are using the „oppressor against the oppressed” narrative, which is making people angry against Israel. And it's just wrong.

– You recently finished your book tour for Last Warning to the West. In it, you draw attention, among other things, to the dangers of the spread of Marxism — something Hungarians are all too familiar with through their own historical experience. Why is cultural Marxism, or “wokeism,” so dangerous, and why have universities become the most fertile breeding ground for these ideas?

– Well, the universities have always been a fertile ground for it. The United States, at least since the Frankfurt School, which dates back back to the 1930s, was full of these sorts of Marxist ideas, Many in the Frankfurt School, which relocated to New York, were advisors to our president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Frankfurt School was a real starting point for the ideology spreading to universities in the United States. I emphasize in my book how Marxism is very similar to progressivism. And Prime Minister Orban was the one that really drove that home to me one time, because he was talking about how he, in the university under the Soviet era, was studying about scientific socialism, and how to engineer and organize society.

All this is very similar to critical race theory and to critical gender theory, which is something I also underlined in my book, I believe around 1960 the Department of Defense published eleven key points about how to combat communist psychological warfare.

If you look at all 11 of those points today, they applied to the U.S. under the Biden administration. We're changing that, and I can tell you how. They also apply to the EU today, and I describe in my book how. Because I wanted young people, Americans and other Westerners, to understand the insidious danger of Marxism staying in our society and taking over our government.

Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, American foreign and security policy expert, is giving an interview to Magyar Nemzet at CPAC Hungary 2025  (Photo: Sandor Csudai)

– On Judicial Watch, a podcast hosted by your husband Chris Farrell on X, you emphasized that Germany, France and the UK already have no-go zones and Islamist territories. You say there is a difference between tolerating another religion, or culture, and allowing a culture to overtake your culture. How is this relevant in today’s Europe? 

Yes indeed, this is what I said on the Judicial Watch podcast. And there is obviously a difference. 

If you come into my country and want to live there and become a citizen, you need to adopt our constitutional values. You need to adopt. You need to adopt the ideology of Americanism. Your culture is very important. You need to hold on to your culture!

If you go to live in somebody else's country, you should adapt to that country and assimilate. And Europe has not done that, so it has become very dangerous for the citizens of the different countries. In France and Germany, for instance, there are no-go zones. And the U.K. , Sharia law has taken precedence in some cases. It's mind-boggling to me that nation-states would allow this.

– You also mentioned that the radical left is using lawfare against conservatives, as well as the media. President Trump was indicted four times, but there were attacks against Romania’s presidential candidate and France’s Marine Le Pen as well. Is the media lndscape biased or balanced in the US, and how can social media change this?

Well, social media has been part of the problem. But it is changing. And I tell you, for example, under the Biden administration, our government from our Department of Justice, our FBI, and some other agencies actually went to platforms like Twitter at the time, Facebook, and said: you must oppress certain bodies of thought. And guess who those people were? Conservatives!

Conservatives about COVID vaccines, about the elections. This way, millions of people's ideas and thoughts in the U.S. were oppressed by our government through these social media platforms. The government, they were actually taken to court about it. 

But as far as the mainstream media, it serves as a propaganda arm of the left.

That is why I admire very much what Hungarians have done. They've said: if we actually want to have conservative media, we have to invest our money in conservative media. Doesn't that make sense? Are we going to complain about the problem all the time or are we going to change it?

You need to invest in media! Newsmax is doing this, as well as OAN (One America News) and of course, Fox. But it's the same as Orban's 12 points (from 2022 - ed.) You have to be pragmatic. You have to own the institutions. That's why I started my own organization called Counterpoint Institute. So: some complain about the situation, some change it. I think it's better to change it!

Cover photo: Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell, president of the conservative think tank Counterpoint Institute, appeared as a guest speaker at CPAC Hungary 2025 (Photo: Sandor Csudai)