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Two of President Donald Trump’s top Democratic critics are using appearances at a high-profile European gathering to blast the Republican president’s agenda and beef up their foreign policy chops on the world state ahead of possible 2028 White House runs.
“Donald Trump is temporary,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday during a climate change discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. “He’ll be gone in three years.”
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, during a town hall at the prestigious conference, pointed to Trump and charged, “We are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm.”
Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez are the most well known of a small group of potential Democratic presidential contenders using appearances in Munich to criticize Trump’s international agenda and offer a contrast to Vice President JD Vance, the perceived 2028 Republican front-runner, who delivered a scathing attack on Europe during his speech at the security forum last year.
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Vice President JD Vance gives a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, Feb. 14, 2025. (Leah Millis/Reuter)
The other Democrats with likely national ambitions making the rounds at the confab and meeting with international leaders are Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and former Commerce Secretary. Gina Raimondo.
Ocasio-Cortez pointed to her fellow Democrats in Munich and said, “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…and increase commitment to integrity to our values.”
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Newsom, who is speaking at his third major international conference in recent months, following appearances last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and late last year at a world climate conference in Brazil, hammered Trump over climate policy, arguing the president is “doubling down on stupid.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 (Michael Probst/AP Photo)
“Never in the history of the United States of America has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant of the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Newsom charged. “Donald Trump is trying to turn back the clock.”
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Fox Digital has reached out to the White House for a response to the jabs from Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez, during the first of her two appearances at the conference, was asked by the town hall moderator, “When you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire’s tax?”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., takes part in the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (Sven Hoppe /dpa via AP)
Responding with a laugh, the four-term federal lawmaker then said, “I don’t think that anyone — that we don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax… That needs to be done expeditiously.”
Matthew Bartlett, who served at the State Department during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital that “the regular foreign policy crowd is turning into something of a cattle call for 2028 as numerous Democrats take Munich to articulate their vision and try to develop some sort of foreign policy credential as the next presidential race is on the horizon.”
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And Terry Shumaker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago during the Clinton administration, noted that the appearances in Munich by the potential candidates “gives them experience, confidence, and something to refer back to on the campaign trail when they’re asked about their foreign policy experience.”
And Shumaker, a longtime New Hampshire-based attorney and Democratic Party activist, said it also signals to the world “that Trump is not a monolith. That there’s another side of the story in the United States.”
