Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrived at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to deliver a “working-class perspective” on foreign policy. But on the world stage, the New York Democrat offered a message far more familiar to global elites: expand social welfare programs and rely on global alliances to combat authoritarianism.
Ocasio-Cortez, a 2028 contender, is often described at home as an insurgent critic of elite power. In Munich, however, her foreign-policy pitch placed her squarely in the mainstream of attendees — from name-dropping Prime Minister Mark Carney to questioning whether “we were in pre–rules-based order” or a “post-rules based order.”
“In a so-called rules-based order, the rules for whom? Because for all too long, the rules only apply to the United States, Europe, its allies, and we would carve out exceptions for the Global South,” Ocasio-Cortez said during a panel on foreign policy that included Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). “And I think that when you have a rules-based order where you carve out exceptions to our values, exceptions to our rules, eventually the exceptions become the rules.”
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U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who was on the panel with Ocasio-Cortez and Whitmer, said the discussion was more “theoretical” than necessary.
“I always think that the rules-based order discussion, for me as somebody from Des Moines, Iowa, that’s actually a practitioner right now in a European capital, at one of our key alliances, is a bit of a theoretical, think tank, coastal elite discussion,” said Whitaker. “Ultimately, it’s shared interest, shared responsibilities, and a moment for the free world … to step up and respond to the dangers of this world.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance at the conference was widely billed by media outlets as an opportunity to offer a “working-class perspective” on foreign policy. Yet, the 36-year-old Democrat mainly used her overseas appearance to lob conventional attacks at President Donald Trump for damaging alliances, pulling the U.S. back from international commitments, and undermining long-standing diplomatic norms.
“I know that the Democratic Party is here for our allies,” she said. “We are shocked at the president’s destruction of our relationship with our European allies; his threatening over Greenland is not a joke. It is not funny. It threatens the very trust and relationships that allow peace to persist.”
She took aim again at Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s upending of decades-long American foreign policy by withdrawing millions in international funding, capturing former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro last month, and prioritizing the AmericaFirst agenda.
The tensions with Europe have led to the U.S. being “very much in a compromised position compared to where we were five years ago,” the New York Democrat claimed.
“They are looking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age … of authoritarians that can carve out the world where Donald Trump can command the Western Hemisphere and Latin America as his personal sandbox,” she said.
When Ocasio-Cortez did address the need “to have a working class-centered politics,” it was pitched as the only way to “stave off the scourges of authoritarianism.”
“So it is of utmost urgent priority that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class,” she said. “Or else we will fall to a more isolated world governed by authoritarians that also do not deliver to working people.”
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Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks are in stark contrast to Vice President JD Vance’s scolding of European allies over free speech abuses and religious liberty during last year’s conference. Vance did not attend the conference this year, Rubio is attending on behalf of Trump.
But Ocasio-Cortez’s presence in Munich has stirred more 2028 speculation, although the congresswoman dodged the question during her morning panel.
