AOC at Munich Security Conference accuses Trump of authoritarianism that puts the world at risk

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez trod onto the international stage Friday at the Munich Security Conference, where she condemned America’s president as an authoritarian and a hypocrite.

She participated in a panel discussion on the rise of populism and called for a shift towards working-class-centered politics and a shift away from President Trump.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, said Mr. Trump is tearing “apart the transatlantic partnership,” and that her party wants to get back to a “rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies” of the U.S.’s foreign policy.

She cited U.S. actions in Venezuela and Greenland as examples of hypocrisy.

“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,” she said.

“We are moving in this direction of increased recognition that we have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed and also if we are going to stave off the scourges of authoritarianism,” she said.

She also said the U.S. should “revisit our commitments to international aid.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democratic leaders had veered off course in Europe.

“Gavin Newscum and AOC should be fixing California and New York’s many problems, but instead, they are frolicking in Europe, where no one knows or cares who they are,” she said. “Thankfully, Americans will always have strong leadership in President Trump, who is working day in and day out to defeat inflation, secure our border, deport migrant criminals, and restore peace through strength.”

The appearance in Germany could help burnish foreign policy credentials for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a leading far-left figure who is seen as a possible future challenger to Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York.

Her name also gets mentioned as a possible presidential contender.

Asked if she would impose a wealth or billionaire’s tax when she runs for higher office, she danced around whether she would ever make a White House run.

“We don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax. I think that it needs to be done expeditiously.”

On the panel in Munich, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez joined leaders such as Czech Republic President Petr Pavel and European and Latin American lawmakers.

She said that she and the other Democrats at the conference in Germany “want to tell a larger story that what is happening is indeed very grave and we are in a new era domestically and globally.”

“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,” said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who is also a prominent member of Congress’ far-left “Squad.”

She said the current U.S. leadership threatens the stability of the entire world.

“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, where [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can saber rattle around Europe and try to bully around our own allies there and for essentially authoritarians to have their own geographic domains,” she said.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said it is the U.S.’s “trans-pacific partnership [and] global alliances that can be a hard stop against authoritarian consolidation of power.”

She said her office paid for her flight to the conference.

Other Democratic lawmakers at the conference include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the administration’s delegation to the conference.