There were so many potential Democratic presidential hopefuls here that it could have been the Sheraton Nashua rather than an elegant Bavarian lodge. In their public comments and private conversations, some of which were de facto bilateral meetings, Democrats ranging from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez assured their European counterparts that Trump is temporary and the transatlantic relationship isn’t.
“It is very important that we have this much Democratic representation this year and to show that we as a party are committed to a different path,” Ocasio-Cortez told me. “Regardless of any political speculation, it is important that people are seeing a unity of that commitment to our allies and our partnerships.”
Newsom, who unlike in his trip to Davos last month brought reassurance rather than kneepads, told me that America’s longstanding relationships “are in dormancy, they’re not dead.”
The president’s principal representative here, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, delivered a speech aimed at reassuring Europe and articulating Trumpism without the rhetorical headbutt that was Vice-President J.D. Vance’s address to last year’s gathering. However, Rubio’s remarks were so compelling that they were met with a standing ovation and only served to remind Republicans and other observers across the Atlantic that he’s a far more talented political athlete than Vance — fueling another round of it-has-to-be-Marco-in-’28-right?
The European hosts, also, could not stop thinking about tomorrow. While grateful for Rubio’s open hand and Valentine’s Day plea that America and the continent “belong together,” policymakers here have been so jarred by Trump that they’re planning for a future in which they cannot rely on the U.S.
Alarmed by Trump’s threats against Greenland but perhaps emboldened by his fulfilling, again, of the TACO theory that he will inevitably back down in the face of market backlash, European leaders spoke bluntly about the administration. And more significantly, they went about discussing a sort-of NATO within the EU and the need for a nuclear umbrella outside Washington’s control.