Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a dire warning about President Donald Trump’s apparent ambition to undermine the rules-based international order and allow authoritarians to “carve out the world” — so long as he takes over the Western Hemisphere.
The New York Democrat made his case during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, beginning with a call to protect the world’s democracies amid Trump’s controversial foreign and domestic policy actions that have defined this tumultuous “new era.”
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“I think what we’re looking for is a return to a rules-based order, removing the hypocrisy, and often in the West, we address these paradoxes in other ways by inconvenienced populations,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She went on to give examples: “Whether it’s kidnapping foreign heads of state, threatening our allies to colonize Greenland, or turning a blind eye to genocide, hypocrisy is a weakness that threatens democracies around the world.”
However, Ocasio-Cortez delivered her most pointed remarks when New York Times reporter Katrin Benhold asked what policies or institutions a Democratic administration would save (such as NATO, the Paris climate accord, or the Iran nuclear deal).
The progressive congresswoman first argued that the United States must first revisit its commitment to foreign aid through agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development and renew political agreements with various allies that the Trump administration has abandoned.
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“They are seeking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can enter an era of authoritarianism that can usher in a world where Donald Trump can control the Western Hemisphere and Latin America,” she continued.
Ocasio-Cortez added that Trump views the entire Western Hemisphere as “his personal sandbox.”
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Sven Hopper/Photo Alliance/Getty Images
She further argued that Trump wouldn’t care if powerful leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin began “bringing force across Europe” and militarily “bullying” U.S. allies there, reiterating that his goal is to “give dictators their own geography.”
Trump acknowledged that only “one thing” limits his pursuit of land and resources, telling The New York Times, “My own morals. My own mind. That’s the only thing that can stop me.”
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“I don’t need international law,” he continued at the time. “I don’t want to hurt people.”
Ocasio-Cortez ended her point on Friday by returning to the host’s core question of what institutions or policies a Democratic administration might want to save, sparking fresh speculation that she could run for president in 2028.
“In reality, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, our global alliance, can powerfully prevent the consolidation of authoritarian power, particularly in terms of establishing regional puppet governments,” she told Benhold.
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