Rubio and AOC Audition for 2028 in Munich
American 2028 presidential hopefuls, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, treated the Munich Security Conference like an audition.
Looking Forward, Not Trump
Politico has the establishment take on Rubio’s audition:
At a moment when American politics is gripped by the daily eruptions of President Donald Trump, he’s never felt more like a lame duck than he did in the corridors of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof.
There were so many potential Democratic presidential hopefuls here that it could have been the Sheraton Nashua rather than an elegant Bavarian lodge. In their public comments and private conversations, some of which were de facto bilateral meetings, Democrats ranging from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez assured their European counterparts that Trump is temporary and the transatlantic relationship isn’t.
“It is very important that we have this much Democratic representation this year and to show that we as a party are committed to a different path,” Ocasio-Cortez told me. “Regardless of any political speculation, it is important that people are seeing a unity of that commitment to our allies and our partnerships.”
Newsom, who unlike in his trip to Davos last month brought reassurance rather than kneepads, told me that America’s longstanding relationships “are in dormancy, they’re not dead.”
The president’s principal representative here, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, delivered a speech aimed at reassuring Europe and articulating Trumpism without the rhetorical headbutt that was Vice President JD Vance’s address to last year’s gathering. However, Rubio’s remarks were so compelling that they were met with a standing ovation and only served to remind Republicans and other observers across the Atlantic that he’s a far more talented political athlete than Vance — fueling another round of it-has-to-be-Marco-in-’28-right?
So what did Little Marco say that got the Euros so worked up?
Rubio’s Call for Neo-Colonialism Goes Over Huge
Well it was a doozy of an audition.
From the State Department transcript:
Marco Rubio: …the United Nations still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world. But we cannot ignore that today, on the most pressing matters before us, it has no answers and has played virtually no role. It could not solve the war in Gaza. Instead, it was American leadership that freed captives from barbarians and brought about a fragile truce. It had not solved the war in Ukraine. It took American leadership and partnership with many of the countries here today just to bring the two sides to the table in search of a still-elusive peace.
It was powerless to constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran. That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B-2 bombers. And it was unable to address the threat to our security from a narcoterrorist dictator in Venezuela. Instead, it took American Special Forces to bring this fugitive to justice.
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we do not want allies to rationalize the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it, for we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognizes that what has ailed our societies is not just a set of bad policies but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency. …
An alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests, and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny – not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations. An alliance that does not allow its power to be outsourced, constrained, or subordinated to systems beyond its control; one that does not depend on others for the critical necessities of its national life; and one that does not maintain the polite pretense that our way of life is just one among many and that asks for permission before it acts. And above all, an alliance based on the recognition that we, the West, have inherited together – what we have inherited together is something that is unique and distinctive and irreplaceable, because this, after all, is the very foundation of the transatlantic bond.
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America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity, and that once again we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends. (Applause.)We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history; with a Europe that has the spirit of creation of liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization; with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive.
How did Rubio’s naked jingoism go over?
The Euro Establishment Loves Little Marco
Here’s EU commission boss Ursula von der Leyen’s reaction:
Un-diplomatic gave von der Leyen the roasting she deserves:
The idea that the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, would be “very much reassured” by Marco Rubio’s remarks—at a moment when the US has declared itself a threat to Europe—is just real boot-licking nonsense; a betrayal of European citizenry. It’s not just von der Leyen. The elites in the room gave Rubio a mass standing ovation in response to his speech.
The Financial Times chief foreign affairs correspondent signed off on Marco’s audition as well, with reservations:
The Wall Street Journal editorial board was enthusiastic too, although they worry that Rubio is soft on Russia:
Mr. Rubio’s speech won praise in Munich and from nearly every corner of President Trump’s domestic coalition.
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Vice President JD Vance made motions to a shared culture with Europe in his speech at the same security conference last year. But Mr. Vance all but told Europe it was free to plan its own funeral and gave oxygen to Europe’s right-wing fringes that are sympathetic to Moscow. Mr. Rubio is also offering a far better vision than Canada’s Mark Carney, the hero of Davos, whose idea for replacing U.S. leadership with a coalition of the world’s “middle powers” is delusional and cynical domestic politics.The big caveat to Mr. Rubio’s message is Ukraine, which like it or not is the current front line of Western civilization. On that score it wasn’t reassuring that after Munich Mr. Rubio headed to Hungary and Slovakia, Russia’s two best friends in Europe.
The U.S. continues to behave like a mediator of the Ukraine-Russia war, rather than taking the side of the West. Mr. Rubio’s good words about shared values won’t mean much if a rotten “peace” is imposed on Ukraine.
The New York Post offered a more cartoonish take with an op-ed headlined: “Marco Rubio delivers tough love to Europe — and the overgrown teenage brats know ‘Dad’ is right.”
The Guardian did some handwringing as it tried to explain that “Why Marco Rubio’s ‘reassuring’ speech to Europe was nothing of the kind.”
The centrists at The Bulwark applauded Rubio’s “catch flies with honey” approach, but lamented that he’s ultimately in thrall to Trump. They also (ridiculously) tried to paint German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’ speech as a strong counter to Rubio.
For my money the real tell was the glowing reaction from unabashed white supremacist Jared Taylor who tweeted, “an excellent assertion of European solidarity by Secretary of State Rubio. He very nearly declared the World Brotherhood of White People.”
Maybe that’s because Rubio’s speechwriter is on board with Taylor’s program.
I’ll close the Rubio section with more critical commenters.
Europe Should Be Worried, Not Applauding
Arnaud Bertrand tweeted that it was “one of the most revisionist and imperialist speeches I’ve ever seen a senior American official make, and that’s saying something.”
But he saved his real fire for the Euros:
The most troubling part was the reaction of the audience: “half the hall in Munich gave US Secretary of State Marco Rubio a standing ovation” and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the Global South half…
It just goes to show the complete absence of reflection in Europe. Rubio undoubtedly tried to appeal to some sort of latent nostalgia for Western imperial dominance among European elites. And it obviously worked (which is scary in and of itself).
But it also shows that Europeans remain naive to the extreme if they believe Rubio’s pitch that he wants Europe to be strong in order to share the spoils of a new age of Western imperialism.
What’s the thinking here? That Trump’s America – “America first” – would suddenly become magnanimous and share with Europe just out of sentiment? That’s not how imperialism works: the whole premise of it is that the strong dominate the weak.
When an imperial power is speaking to you of sentiments, of how much they like you and how they want to partner with you – the much weaker party – that’s cause for worry, not applause…
Enough about Rubio’s revanchism, let’s hear from the “alternative.”
AOC Tests Her Foreign Policy Wings
Being just a Congressional Representative, AOC had to make do with panel appearances rather than getting a featured speech.
Some excerpts from her remarks:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: This is a moment where we are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm, and calling into question, as was mentioned by David Carney at the World Economic Forum, the rules-based order that we have or question mark do we have?
And so I think one of the reasons why not just myself but many of our colleagues here, Democrats that are here is because we want to tell a larger story that what is happening is indeed very grave and we are in a new era domestically and globally.
There have been many leaders who said we will go back. And I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a new time.
But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order and that we’re ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy. I think what we identify is that in a rules-based order, hypocrisy is vulnerability.
And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the west we look the other way for inconvenient populations um to act out these paradoxes whether it is kidnapping a foreign head of state, whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland, whether it is looking the other way in a genocide.
Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities and they threaten democracies globally. And so I think many of us are here to say we are here and we are ready for the next chapter not to have the world turn to isolation but to deepen our partnership on on greater and increased commitment to integrity to our values.
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Extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability…it is an urgent priority that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class, or else we will fall to a more isolated world governed by authoritarians that also do not deliver to working people.
So did she pass the audition?
Reactions to AOC
The New York Times gave her audition mixed notices:
…she tied income inequality to the rise of authoritarians and offered a forceful rebuttal to President Trump’s worldview. She also had some shaky moments.
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The visit also demonstrated the relative foreign policy inexperience of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who has made a few overseas trips since taking office but does not sit on any House committees devoted primarily to world affairs. She struggled at times to formulate succinct answers at a nighttime panel session, during which she was asked probing and specific questions about how to respond to international crises.Questioned about whether the United States should send troops to defend Taiwan if China invaded the island, she stalled for roughly 20 seconds before offering a substantive response.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was quicker to respond to questions about other foreign policy matters, such as whether she would support military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — “There’s still so much runway, so much more we can do to avoid that scenario,” she said — and whether the U.S. should re-evaluate aid to Israel. Unconditional aid had “enabled a genocide in Gaza,” she replied.
The Dissident hit AOC’s audition much harder from the left:
While AOC did oppose bombing Iran at the behest of Israel, she repeated CIA and Mossad talking points without giving vital context before doing so.
When asked, “Would you support direct U.S. military strikes on Nuclear facilities if direct negotiations fail with Iran?” AOC responded, “I think that that is a dramatic escalation that no one in the world wants to see. Right now what the Iranian regime is doing particularly with respect to protesters is a horrific slaughter of some estimates have tens of thousands of people.”
The claims of “tens of thousands of people” killed by the Iranian government during protests comes from biased sources openly supporting war with Iran, such as Amir Parasta a German-Iranian eye surgeon who is a lobbyist for the Israeli opposition puppet Reza Pahlavi and the outlet Iran International, which Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said , “the Mossad is using… quite regularly for its information war”.
In other words, AOC opposing war with Iran but repeating the claim of “tens of thousands dead” is akin to saying in 2002, “I oppose war with Iraq, but Saddam definitely has WMDS”.
She also got knocked for her comments about Venezuela:
Oof.
She did at least piss off Fox News with her remarks on the genocide in Gaza.
And FWIW, she did draw more attention to herself than California Governor Gavin Newsom did with his Munich appearance:
Typically for myopic Western media, the Munich keynote speech by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi received far less attention, his call for multilateralism and cooperation being ignored in favor of swill like this from Politico: “Munich 2026 awards: Kaja Kallas’ poker face, Lindsey Graham cursing and Mark Rutte talking to a dog.”