US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said that President Donald Trump’s administration is “tearing apart the transatlantic partnership” as its relationship with Europe remains strained.
The New York Democrat, who is a potential 2028 presidential candidate, told the Munich Security Conference: “President Trump has withdrawn from and is looking to withdraw the US from the entire world and turn into an age of authoritarianism to carve out a world where Donald Trump can command the western world and Latin America as his personal sandbox.”
Speaking alongside other world leaders, including Czech president Petr Pavel, Ms Ocasio-Cortez called for a return to “rules-based order” and to address hypocrises.
She said: “I think this is a moment where we are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm, and … really calling into question, as was mentioned by Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum, the rules based order that we have, or, question mark, do we have?
“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.”
Taking direct aim at Trump’s record during his first year in office of his second term, she referenced his threats to Denmark and his recent capturing of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro.
She said: “And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies … when, too often, in the West, we’d look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes, whether it is kidnapping a foreign head of state, whether it is threatening our allies to colonise Greenland, whether it is looking the other way in a genocide.
“Hypocrisies are our vulnerabilities and they threaten democracies.
“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 greater and increase commitment to integrity to our values.”
Europe has been left reeling from Trump’s more aggressive foreign policy in his second term, forcing a reassessment of global alliances. This has included threats of annexing Greenland, the resource-rich island which is part of Denmark (a Nato member), while his representative at peace talks between Ukraine and Russia – Steve Witkoff – has consistently taken Moscow’s side.
US vice-president JD Vance’s criticism of European countries, including the UK, over free speech and immigration last year set the tone for a dramatic deterioration in relations, which has also seen multiple threats of tariffs on the EU bloc.
It follows comments from California’s Democrat governor Gavin Newsom earlier on Friday, who told the conference that Trump is “doubling down on stupid”.
Mr Newsom, who is also said to have presidential ambitions and has been in a long-lasting dispute with Mr Trump, said: “Never in the history of the United States of America has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant in the White House in Washington, DC.”
In a conversation that was largely focused on climate change, he said that Trump “is trying to recreate the 19 century.”
“We’re proving at scale that we can implement, we can compete and we can dominate, but Donald Trump is trying to turn back the clock.”
He added:“I hope, if there’s nothing else I can communicate today, Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years.”
He also called on other world and corporate leaders to “call out” the U.S. president, stating: “We’re all becoming Chamberlains in this place, corporate leaders have to stand up.”
Sir Keir Starmer will address the conference on Saturday morning and take part in a moderated conversation titled “Principled and pragmatic: wielding power in a world in disarray” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
He is expected to call for the bloc to move away from its over-dependence on Washington, while his German counterpart, Freidrick Merz, said that the United States’ “claim to leadership is disputed, perhaps squandered”.
Source: independent.co.uk