Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) laughed off teasing by a panel moderator Friday about a possible 2028 White House run — as the Bronx and Queens lawmaker presented her foreign policy vision on a global stage.
“When you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire’s tax?” New York Times correspondent Katrin Bennhold asked the congresswoman with her first question during a discussion at the Munich Security Conference of “the rise of populism.”
“I don’t think that anyone — that we don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax,” responded AOC, ignoring the thrust of Bennhold’s question. “That needs to be done expeditiously.”
Later in the event, Ocasio-Cortez ripped President Trump, accusing his administration of “wrecking ball politics” and warning that the US is tearing apart its alliances.
“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 call into question the rules-based order.”
She further argued that while the Trump administration is reshaping US policy, “that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she traveled to Munich to “tell a larger story” — that the American public remains committed to democracy and global partnerships despite Trump’s “very grave” actions.
“We are in a new day and in a new time,” she said. “But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy.”
The “Squad” member also warned that “hypocrisy is vulnerability” in foreign policy while making none-too-veiled digs at Trump’s foreign policy actions over the past year.
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Among the examples she cited were “kidnapping a foreign head of state,” “threatening our allies to colonize Greenland,” and “looking the other way in a genocide” — respectively alluding to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and Trump’s support for Israel during its war with Hamas.
“We are here, and we are ready for the next chapter,” she said. “Not to have the world turn to isolation, but to deepen our partnership and increase commitment to integrity and our values.”
Asked which institutions a future Democratic administration would seek to recommit to, Ocasio-Cortez responded: “First and foremost, I think we need to revisit our commitments to international aid — not just USAID, but the dozens of global compacts that this current Secretary of State and President Trump have withdrawn from.”
“They are looking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age of authoritarianisms,” she added, claiming that Trump was happy to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to “saber-rattle around Europe” as long as the American president could “command the Western Hemisphere and Latin America as his personal sandbox.”
