Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made an appearance in Munich this week, undoubtedly looking to bolster her “foreign policy credentials” ahead of a potential presidential run in 2028. If you’re familiar with the socialist congresswoman, you can guess how it turned out.
Setting aside the superficial nature of American politics, which seems to equate mere speeches at a security conference with actual experience, Ocasio-Cortez clearly had a strategy in mind. She aimed to step in, share a few thoughts on billionaires, and assert that democracy is facing threats worldwide. It seemed like a straightforward plan, but as the saying goes, not all plans go smoothly:
AOC is asked if the US should defend Taiwan in the event China invades. Her answer is a word salad disaster that would even make Kamala cringe: pic.twitter.com/jgfMWiSfmE
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2026
Believe it or not, though, that wasn’t the worst of it.
During one session, the congresswoman was asked about implementing a “wealth tax.” After stumbling over her response, an Argentinian politician stepped up and delivered a stellar answer. The stark contrast in intellect was, um, damaging for Ocasio-Cortez.
AOC in Munich giggles excitedly when asked if she will impose a wealth tax as president. Moments later, her ignorance is exposed by Argentinian politician Daiana Fernández Molero, who has actually seen the destruction caused by a wealth tax. pic.twitter.com/FQn6iEtxTC
— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) February 16, 2026
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HOST: So when you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire’s tax?
OCASIO-CORTEZ: I don’t think that, um, I don’t think that anyone, and that we don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax. I think it needs to be done expeditiously.
MOLERO: You have the recipe that many Latin American countries applied many, many times, that is some relief in the short term, but ends up being a tragedy for the future. It’s like a public expenditure, huge public expenditure, price controls, sometimes wealth tax, and you end up with the wealth going away, and you have just the tax, and you don’t have wealth anymore. That was something that Peronism did many, many times.
So all these recipes create a cycle. Then you have this short-term relief, but then it goes with inflation, shortage, then you have more poverty, and the cycle goes and goes.
Spot. On. Taxing all the wealth out of a country is national suicide, as example after example after example has proven.
Also, it’s important to recognize that Ocasio-Cortez isn’t accustomed to facing pushback. She typically receives adoring coverage and easy interviews. When confronted with questions that veer away from her usual socialist talking points, she struggles. Handling negative headlines following her missteps is also not within her expertise.
In short, she was clearly frustrated and quickly turned to one of her supporters at The New York Times to help clean up her image. Although he was eager to assist, he ultimately wasn’t wasn’t really able to help much.
The way her performance was microscopically dissected through the lens of what it meant for a hypothetical White House campaign frustrated AOC.
She said she worried that her message was being lost in all the commotion.https://t.co/KBeT3kaBzj
— Kellen Browning (@Kellen_Browning) February 17, 2026
It makes you wonder if any of these so-called “journalists” at the dying left-wing legacy media outlets feel any shame at all. “She gave me a call,” says Kellen Browning. She called you? So, what are you – her personal stenographer?
Just look at these opening paragraphs. How embarrassing:
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had anticipated a potentially frosty reception to her anti-establishment arguments at the Munich Security Conference, a venue she called “an elite place of decision makers that, frankly, are not responsive to a class-based message.”
And the visit to Germany felt high-stakes: It was the most prominent foreign trip to date by the progressive New York congresswoman, who had mostly focused on domestic priorities until now. Her remarks last week about addressing working-class concerns around the globe, and the reception from world leaders, were both eagerly awaited and highly scrutinized.
But rather than the substance of her arguments, it was her on-camera stumbles when answering questions about specific world affairs that rocketed around conservative social media and drove plenty of the discussion about her visit, as political observers speculated whether they would make a dent in a potential presidential run in 2028.
What exactly was missing regarding Ocasio-Cortez’s involvement in Munich? Her main meeting was with a struggling socialist party that traces its roots back to East Berlin. During her on-screen appearances, she seemed completely unprepared to engage in any serious discussions about the matters at hand.
The stenographer rambled on:
“This reporter came up to me and was like, ‘Is Munich the new New Hampshire?’ And I cannot say enough how out of touch and missing the point, genuinely, that is,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview, referring to the state’s tradition of hosting early presidential primary contests. “Global democracies are on fire the world over, and established parties are falling to right-wing populist movements.”
To Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, the discourse about her visit had missed the more important point about the risks of authoritarianism — an argument that she said had been well-received by the Europeans during two foreign policy panels, private meetings with German leaders and an address in a packed university auditorium in Berlin.
Never mind that politicians with the same left-wing, communist-socialist leanings as AOC are lighting their own “democracies” on fire; what she and they are upset about is that the people of those countries (and our own for that matter) are rejecting the madness and, yes, the real authoritarianism that is the modern left.
As to AOC’s performances and her hissy fit that followed, this is what happens when a political lightweight, whose rise to fame was largely fueled by astroturfing in a far-left congressional district with support from DSA funding and some acting lessons, finally faces real pressure. Ocasio-Cortez anticipated the kind of coverage she typically receives from the mainstream media. Instead, she got a brutal wake-up call. It turns out she’s not quite up to the task, and now she’s under the spotlight like never before.
She may want to reconsider her ambitions for a presidential run in 2028, because once the luster fades from a politician, it’s tough to regain it. The downfall of Kamala Harris shows that voters can see through facades quite easily, and they certainly don’t forget.
