Marco's Moment, Morons, and Mendacity in Munich

Duane Patterson 12:40 PM | February 16, 2026
AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Who knew the Germans could be this much fun? 

For the past 64 years, the Munich Security Conference has played host to a summit of international political leaders and foreign policy intellectuals for speeches and roundtables meant to address the biggest threats faced by the West, and talk through innovative solutions in order to overcome those threats. 

I said intellectuals, which makes me wonder exactly who decided to include California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and former bartender/Brooklyn Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the event, because the contrast between the list of 2028 Democratic presidential wannabes, just in foreign policy chops, to the worldview and strategic clarity as articulated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio could not have been more stark.

Munich turned out this year to be the best of both worlds, if you're a conservative like me - one that wants the U.S. to remain the global superpower and strategic leader of the West, continuing the trend that began after World War II well into the future as another American century, Rubio's speech was about as perfect an address on the state of the world and where it's going as I have ever heard. And the Democrats who got face time proved they're not remotely ready for the Major Leagues, they're not capable of handling T-Ball, yet. 

Let's start with Secretary Rubio's address, because it truly was magnificent. If you have not watched all 22-minutes, you owe it to yourself to see and hear exactly what Donald Trump's vision for the world is, and how strategic and clear-eyed that vision is being implemented by Rubio at State. 

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If you don't have the time, here are a few excerpts to give you a pith of the gist. This speech will be one that think tanks and universities studying American foreign policy will study for generations. It was, in short, an all-timer. Addressing the concerns Trump administration critics have of the U.S. bullying its allies into weakness, the reality is that Trump and Rubio would much prefer a world with a strengthened alliance of nations that can act independently and not have to rely on the U.S. for everything. 

There were several notable takeaway lines from Rubio's address, but none with the potential impact of this one. "We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline." 

The hits did not end for Rubio with this speech. He conducted a few interviews in Munich immediately afterwards and also held a joint press conference with Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia. First, on Munich television, Rubio's thoughts on the stalemate between Ukraine and Russia. 

On Cuba: 

At the Slovakian press conference, the media tried to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Slovakia over our strike on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduro. Rubio saw the trap coming a mile away and responded before the translators even relayed the question to PM Fico. 

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Rubio also effortlessly countered the media's narrative that America just wants vassal states that are dependent on the U.S. for leadership and guidance. That's not Trump's vision, and never has been. It's not Rubio's either, and he restated the Trump doctrine very clearly for anyone who is confused. 

He also said very bluntly why a deal with Iran is not possible. 

Now it's time to contrast this clarity, purpose, and strategic vision by Secretary Rubio with not one, not two, not three, but four Democrats who would love a shot at the White House in 2028. I have no realistic way of presenting them in order of dumbest to smartest. I'll leave that to the readers to rank them. But first up is California Governor Gavin Newsom. 

Donald Trump is president until Noon on January 20th, 2029. Gavin Newsom is out of office on January 4th, 2027. One is more temporary than the other, and by my math, if we're talking about time left in office, Donald Trump has a little more than three Gavins to go. 

It's all the rage here in the States for Democrats and Never Trumpers on the right as well to compare Donald Trump to Hitler/Stalin/fascists/Nazis, etc. Their rhetoric is nothing new. George W. Bush was Hitler. Heck, former Barack Obama political guru David Axelrod coined the expression Mittzkrieg during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign to make the Nazi comparison. But typically, it's not a great look to go to Munich, Germany, a place that actually has experience with what Nazism did to their city and country, let alone Europe and the rest of the world, and how many people died as a result of it, and call the American president a Nazi. It makes Newsom look small, historically ignorant, and desperately pathetic. 

And speaking of desperately pathetic, Newsom is upset that Donald Trump's EPA just killed off Barack Obama's Endangerment Finding. Newsom is livid. He's so livid that the White House is undermining climate regulations that he, *checks notes*, flew with his staff from California to Munich, Germany, contributing an estimated 90 metric tons of carbon into the air round-trip to protest how angry he is at the President. 

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The funny part of Gavin flying halfway around the world on a plane powered by fossil fuels? Two refineries are in the process of leaving the Golden State, along with the rest of its resident billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg for lower income tax locales, and state officials are now relying on the importation of more than 40% of their gasoline...from the Bahamas. 

Mind you, this is not crude oil that the Golden State is importing. This is gasoline - gasoline that is refined elsewhere in the United States, exported to the Bahamas, and then sold on the open market to a desperate California, which then ships it through the Panama Canal to the West Coast. I'm sure that's exactly the type of ecological and economic efficiency the international jetsetter Newsom has in mind when complaining about Donald Trump. 

Also in Munich for no explicable reason was Newsom's colleague in the Democratic governor ranks - Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer. Again, this is an international conference to talk about international issues and geopolitics. During a roundtable, Whitmer was asked about Ukraine. It went about as well as you'd expect. 

Deferring to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, as the expert on foreign policy is not the selling point she thinks it is. Whitmer was as out of her element at this conference as, well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

AOC's lone highlight, if one is charitable, and Jon Allen of NBC News always is charitable if there is a narrative that can be built around any potential Democratic contender, was this one. 

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Of course, it's barely coherent Marxist claptrap, but Jon saw a kernel of an idea that if you close your eyes and sing John Lennon's Imagine a few times, you could envision a worldview developing. 

Jon may be right. The fever swamp on the left, devoid of intellect and high on the appearance of spunk, may end up nominating her in 2028. But intellectual vision? Nah. 

I teased Jon on X and asked him to make the theory of the case for her homage to Kamala Harris in this clip, and he did his best. He said all presidents stumble through the Taiwan question. It's strategic ambiguity at its finest. I'd have an easier time buying it if she didn't look and sound like she had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. 

In another exchange, she did know exactly what she was talking about. 

AOC, if not openly antisemitic, has consistently been antisemitic adjacent. Here, she has no problems calling Israel's reaction after the 10/7 massacre against its citizenry as genocidal. Iran's genocide in the tens of thousands of its own people? Come on, let's not get too hasty with our rhetoric. 

After Secretary Rubio's address, which earned a sustained standing ovation from Munich Security Conference attendees, AOC decided to pick a nit, which being a nitwit herself, wasn't wise. 

First off, the mascot of the high school that since 2022 graduated not one, but two miscellaneous random people that happen to co-reside with my wife and I, are the Vaqueros - Spanish cowboys. The idea that a woman literally named Ocasio-Cortez, Ocasio primarily a Puerto Rican surname, and Cortez being a common surname originating in Spain (mainly on the plain), not knowing the influence of Spanish culture on Latin America is simply too fun to check. 

Of course, the correct answer is that there were no horses and/or cowboy culture until the Spanish brought them to Latin American soil. It was that vaquero culture that eventually migrated north through Mexico into what eventually became Texas. AOC's sublimely stupid attack line back at Rubio, totally devoid of her own ancestral history, should be disqualifying for a future presidential contender. Online, the dragging and fact-checking she has received has been riotously funny. My personal favorite? This one. 

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The last contestant in the Munich presidential foreign policy sweepstakes would normally have the advantage going in, having previously served as Secretary of State. At least on her resume, she arguably has the most credibility on international affairs going on. You would think she would have learned, or better yet, remembered a thing or two by now, but former First Lady/Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's turn in the spotlight was just pathetic and sad. She's an intellectual shell of what she used to be, which, from my point of view, admittedly wasn't a whole lot in the first place. TDS has taken its toll on Hillary almost more than Father Time has, and what you have left in Munich is basically Bill Kristol in a pantsuit. 

One of her main objectives, I guess, was to normalize the abnormal. "Women's rights," she screamed. We need a new panel devoted to women's rights, and those women's rights begin, apparently, by testimony offered by someone who's actually not really a woman, but a dude representing Delaware in Congress who has that pesky Y chromosome, along with the accompanying male anatomy. 

Look, if Delaware insists that a man pretending to be a woman is their best possible representative in Congress, that's up to them. But just like a Canadian curling stone every four years, Rep. McBride will get the proverbial finger, just like every other male with a prostate gland does. 

Later, on a panel discussion that included Peter Macinka, the Czech deputy prime minister, Hillary exploded when Macinka responded to her anti-Trump screed by noting sarcastically that it seems she doesn't prefer the cut of Mr. Trump's jib very much. 

Hillary got physically exercised and lost her cool. She demanded examples. Remember, this is an international conference of world leaders in Western countries, and the narrative we're constantly told by elected Democrats and their media allies is that Donald Trump is universally hated in the world, especially by our allies. And what we see instead is that a lot of our allies totally get Donald Trump and why his politics resonate. Many are implementing the same anti-woke measures in their own countries that Trump did here. 

But Hillary wanted an example, and Macinka gave her one. 

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Two secretaries of state - one current, one former - at the same conference. One earned a spontaneous standing ovation and kudos from our Western allies. The other was laughed at as the raving lunatic into which Donald Trump has transformed her, like he's done to so many people suffering end-stage TDS. It's really one of his superpowers. 

Mark your calendars. In 11 days on the 27th, Secretary Clinton is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee and testify about her knowledge of the sordid Jeffrey Epstein affair, being that she's actually listed in the documents as one of the ones that went to his private island multiple times. The question I would love to see asked, and Secretary Clinton pressed over and over when she inevitably refuses to answer, is...

Madame Secretary, of all the people, young and old, that you saw on Mr. Epstein's island lo, those many times you and your husband frequented the place, did you ever see physical evidence of more than two genders present?

There's your Kalshi proposition bet of the day. You're welcome. 

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Tags:

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ DONALD TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY GAVIN NEWSOM GERMANY JEFFREY EPSTEIN

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