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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Donald Trump of tearing apart the transatlantic alliance with Europe and of seeking to introduce an “age of authoritarianism”, as she condemned his administration’s foreign policy in front of its allies’ top policymakers at the Munich security conference.
Speaking at a panel on populism on Friday, the New York representative outlined what she called an “alternative vision” for a leftwing US foreign policy, challenging the Trump administration’s shift to the right in front an audience of US allies who have grown increasingly wary of the US’s increasingly nationalist – and militaristic – global posture.
She also condemned the US capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and the US’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense,” Ocasio-Cortez said during another panel discussion. “I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza, and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”
Ocasio-Cortez also said that she and her fellow Democrats were calling for a return to a “rules-based order” without the “hypocrisies” of US foreign policy that have dominated the past and current administrations.
AOC accuses Trump of trying to usher in ‘age of authoritarianism’
In her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez said Trump and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, were “looking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age of authoritarianism”, as they sought to “carve out a world where Donald Trump can command the western hemisphere and Latin America as his personal sandbox, where Putin can saber-rattle around Europe and try to bully our own allies there”.
Bitter dispute between Trump and EU over Gaza’s future
A bitter dispute between Europe and the US over the future of Gaza has broken out into the open, with the EU’s head of foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, warning that Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” was a personal vehicle for the US president that removed any accountability to Palestinians or the United Nations.
US homeland security department on track for shutdown
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is on course for an official shutdown at midnight after lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over the much-criticized agency’s funding.
US inflation falls to 2.4% in January after Trump’s tariffs led to price fluctuations
US inflation moderated in January to 2.4%, an easing after Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered price fluctuations last year.
Prices rose 0.2% from December to January, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services. Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy industries, went up 0.3% over the month.
Trump threatens to impose photo ID for voters for midterm elections
Trump insisted he will push for the change even if Congress fails to pass the Save America act, which cleared the House earlier this week but faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill would impose a national photo identification requirement to vote, in addition to requiring proof of citizenship to register and drastically limiting mail-in voting.
Trump doubles down on racist video, saying no staffer has been disciplined
Donald Trump on Thursday continued to brush off widespread backlash over a racist video posted to his social media account last week, and said no White House staffer had faced consequences for the offensive post.
Asked by Weijia Jiang of CBS News on Thursday whether he had “fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas”, Trump said that he had not.
Four men in unredacted files named by Ro Khanna have no ties to Epstein
Ro Khanna, a California Democratic representative, read a list of six names on the House floor earlier this week and said they were “wealthy, powerful men that the DoJ hid” in the recently released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. After questions from the Guardian, the Department of Justice said that four of the men Khanna named have no apparent connection to Epstein whatsoever, but rather appeared in a photo lineup assembled by the southern district of New York (SDNY).
US paid $32m to five countries to accept about 300 deportees, report shows
The Trump administration has spent more than $1m per person to deport some immigrants to countries they have no connection to, only to see many sent back to their home nations at further taxpayer expense, according to a new congressional investigation.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on Thursday 12 February.
