Newsom, AOC seek to boost profiles, reassure allies at Munich Security Conference
Gavin Newsom, governor of California, at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Nuclear deterrence is set to be a hot topic at the conference. (Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — While it’s not Des Moines or Manchester, Munich may be on some Democrats’ path to a White House run or higher office.
Several Democrats thought to be considering 2028 presidential runs are attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend to boost their profiles and strengthen bonds with European allies strained in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
From Gov. Gavin Newsom of California to Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the Democrats plan to push an alternative to Trump’s aggressive and transactional foreign policy agenda, lawmakers, aides and analysts told ABC News.
Newsom is expected to address the conference, meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and formalize a new partnership between California and Ukraine.
In a post on X, Gallego previewed his visit, writing: “I’m headed to the Munich Security Conference this weekend to talk about rebuilding alliances and restoring steady American leadership. To meet the threat of China, the world needs a partner it can count on again, not chaos.”
At last year’s gathering, Vice President JD Vance criticized European allies, accusing them of censoring right-wing political parties and not doing more to stop illegal migration.
Since then, Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, repeated threats to seize Greenland and calls for NATO allies to spend more on security have forced longtime U.S. allies to question American commitments.
“We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a speech in Davos, Switzerland, last month. “Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
Democrats will have to reaffirm their support for strong transatlantic ties while navigating European skepticism after Trump’s 2024 victory, Damian Murphy, a former Democratic foreign policy staffer and senior vice president of National Security at the Center for American Progress, told ABC News.
“They have to be careful not to overpromise and send too much of a message of reassurance, because at the end of the day, Trump is still in the White House and still directs foreign policy,” he said. “But it’s important for a European audience to understand that that’s not a monolithic view.”
The conference is also an opportunity for Democrats to bring new perspectives to the world stage and give them an opportunity to “establish relationships” with world leaders, Murphy added.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is one of the most prominent progressive voices in the party, is running for reelection in 2026 and has not said whether she plans to run for Senate or the White House in 2028, though supporters have encouraged her to do so.
The New York Democrat, who does not serve on any national security committees in Congress like most lawmakers traveling to Munich, will participate in two panels on Friday, as she takes a bigger step onto the foreign policy stage.
Matt Duss, a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has advised Ocasio-Cortez on foreign policy, told ABC News he expects her to share a progressive perspective on foreign policy, one intertwined with her domestic politics aimed at combating economic inequality and improving the conditions for working people.
“I think it’s safe to say that the American electorate has some very serious questions and different ideas about how the U.S. should act in the world than it has previously,” Duss told ABC News.
Ocasio-Cortez has also been a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas and accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people. She also voted against an amendment that would have stripped U.S. funding for Israel’s missile defense systems, but has pushed back against U.S. offensive military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is leading the Trump administration’s delegation to Munich, called the summit “an important conference” and that other delegations “want honesty” and “want to know where we’re going, where we’d like to go with them.”
“We live in a new era in geopolitics, and it’s going to require all of us to sort of reexamine what that looks like and what our role is going to be,” he said.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appears on ‘The View,’ on Jan. 7, 2026. ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in her first interview since resigning from Congress effective Monday, said on ABC’s “The View” on Wednesday that she disagrees with the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the focus on Venezuela instead of other countries that contribute to the flow of drugs into the U.S.
Greene said that while she served on the House Homeland Security Committee, “it wasn’t Venezuela that we were ever talking about” regarding drug trafficking, and that “you can’t hold Maduro accountable and not hold Mexican cartels accountable, who are number one”.
The Trump administration has said it is taking action on stopping the flow of drugs from various countries, including Mexico. On Sunday, Trump said Colombia could face a similar fate as Venezuela, and he said Cuba was imminently “ready to fall.” He also said Mexico could be next, as the administration seeks to continue its battle against drug cartels.
The former congresswoman, who has previously pushed back against other U.S. foreign policy endeavors, insisted as well that she remains “America First,” which she said does not align with the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.
“We campaigned, and I went to countless Trump rallies and stood on the stage with the president and stood on the stage with other Republican candidates and said ‘America First. No more regime change, no more foreign wars, no more foreign intervention.’ Enough of this. That’s what America First means,” she said.
“Militarily invading a country, killing people in the process, arresting their leader and taking them out, then claiming this is for the Venezuelan people, and saying all the charges are about drugs, but then turning around and literally, every single statement is about Venezuelan oil and how it belongs to America … it’s not working.”
Greene also said a “deeper issue” for her on the U.S. action on Venezuela is that “if it’s OK to go into Venezuela and arrest Maduro, then why are we telling China you can’t go and take Taiwan? Why are we telling Russia you can’t go take Ukraine?”
Greene, first elected to the House in 2020, had established herself as one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies and a staunch supporter of the MAGA movement he spearheaded. Greene came to define the MAGA movement on Capitol Hill, fighting Trump’s second impeachment following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat at then-President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in 2024.
But she broke with Trump more recently on issues such as the Israel-Hamas war and releasing files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump withdrew his support for Greene in November after she criticized him and his administration for their handling of the Epstein investigation, along with other matters.
Greene announced that month that she would resign from the House, dropping a surprise bombshell soon after she was one of few Republicans to sign on to a discharge petition forcing a vote to order the Department of Justice to release the files. Her resignation before the end of her term leaves House Republicans with an even narrower majority — with 218 Republicans against 213 Democrats as of Wednesday, after Greene’s resignation and the death of GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California on Tuesday.
Greene said Wednesday she made the final decision to leave Congress when Trump called her a “traitor” and soon after, her son began to face death threats. She said she herself had faced threats previously and was used to them.
“One of MAGA’s big campaign pledges was to release the Epstein files. And then having to say ‘Am I going to have to be the next Charlie Kirk? Is my son going to get murdered because I’m trying to continue to do this job?'” she said, referencing the high-profile conservative activist who was assassinated in Utah in September.
Asked how she would respond to people skeptical of her political transformation who think she is trying for a run for another office or to get ahead of potential Republican losses in the 2026 midterms, Greene replied, “I’ve been asked by every single person that’s interviewed me, ‘What are you running for?’ And I’ve said over and over again to exhaustion I’m not running for Senate. I’m not running for governor, I’m not running for president. So first of all, that narrative is just wrong about me.”
She added later that her focus is on “using my voice to pull Americans on the right and the left together to focus on our collective problems, particularly affordability.”
Yet Greene had sharp criticism for Democrats when asked if she’d consider becoming one, saying that Democratic policies and actions contributed to issues at the southern border and both parties had contributed to ballooning national debt.
She declined to say whether she’d leave the GOP.
“I haven’t said if I’m leaving the Republican Party, but my focus is America First, and my focus is — earn my vote,” she said.
As for what’s next for her, Greene told “The View” that she hopes to spend more time with her children, her mother, and friends.
Would she ever return to Congress if Trump asked her to?
“Absolutely not — the way he treated me. No,” Greene said.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller, John Parkinson, Jay O’Brien Will Steakin and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a Medal of Honor Ceremony in the East Room of the White House on March 02, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will soon make an endorsement in the heated Texas Senate Republican primary, as Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton head toward a runoff election in May.
Trump also expressed his desire for the non-endorsed candidate to concede.
“The Republican Primary Race for the United States Senate in the Great State of Texas, a State I LOVE and won 3 times in Record Numbers (the HIGHEST vote ever recorded, by far!!!), cannot, for the good of the Party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer. IT MUST STOP NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!!” Trump wrote.
The president’s post came hours after Senate Republican leadership urged Trump to back Cornyn, a four-term Republican senator, over Paxton, a conservative firebrand who has become popular among Trump’s MAGA base despite being involved in several scandals.
Neither Cornyn nor Paxton captured 50% of the vote on Tuesday night’s primary. Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt, who was also running in the primary, has conceded.
The winner of the GOP primary will face Democrat James Talarico, a 36-year-old Presbyterian seminarian and former teacher who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Tuesday night.
At stake in this year’s midterm cycle is Trump’s hold on Congress, where Republicans have narrow majorities in both the House and Senate.
“We need to hold that seat, which means we need to nominate somebody that’s going to win in November. And to me, that’s only one of those two that’s going to make it to the runoff: and that is John Cornyn,” Republican Whip John Barrasso said on Wednesday. “I would encourage the president to endorse him. The president will make his on his own time.”
Barrasso noted higher turnout on Tuesday night among Democratic voters, which he said “shows that the energy and enthusiasm is there on the Democrat side.
“We need to nominate somebody who attracts voters across the state of Texas, and that’s John Cornyn,” Barrasso said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he’s hopeful that Trump will endorse Cornyn and save the GOP’s campaign arm from continuing to have to spend heavily to help Cornyn defeat Paxton. Cornyn and his allies already spent more than $70 million on ad spending, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“Cornyn had, in my view — had a great night. And you know, wins. He’s positioned to win the runoff,” Thune said. “And if the president endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money and lot of just, 10 weeks of spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats.”
Thune said that a hard-fought primary runoff between two Republican candidates is “not helpful.”
“Which is why, if the president can weigh in, it would be enormously helpful,” Thune said.
Thune later told Fox News that he spoke with Trump on Wednesday and reiterated his support for Cornyn, though he said Trump “makes his own decisions.”
Throughout the course of the primary election, Trump’s avoided making an endorsement, claiming that Cornyn, Paxton and Hunt were all “excellent” candidates and his “friends.”
Trump, in his social media post on Wednesday, praised Cornyn and Paxton for running “good races” but said they were “not good enough.”
“We have an easy to beat, Radical Left Opponent, and we have to TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively! Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!” Trump wrote.
ABC News’ Diana Paulsen contributed to this report.
Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — When President Donald Trump capped a historic political comeback on Inauguration Day last Jan. 20, he proclaimed the “Golden Age of America” had arrived, and in his first 12 months, the nation has experienced a whiplash of domestic and foreign policy changes, and political disputes that have stirred intense national debate.
Within hours of taking office, the president signed more than 200 executive actions, including rescinding nearly 80 actions under President Joe Biden, and pardoning 1,500 people convicted of crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America First,” Trump vowed during his inaugural address.
A look at Trump’s first year shows a mixture of fulfilled promises, dramatic actions and ongoing controversies that show his political ambitions and the divided response from Americans.
Foreign policy
Trump ran on an agenda of “peace through strength,” promising to be a global peacemaker.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier,” Trump said during his address at the inauguration.
Since taking office, the president has made significant foreign policy decisions, from an on-the-ground operation to seize the leader of Venezuela, ratcheting tensions with Europe in an effort to seize Greenland and efforts to achieve peace in global conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East.
The president achieved one of those goals by securing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that raged in Gaza. The delicate peace deal has held and recently moved into its second phase. The deal came after months of statecraft by Trump and many of his closest allies.
Trump has also formulated what he calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” a play on words of the Monroe Doctrine that reimagines the American role in the Western Hemisphere. That change in vision was punctuated by an on-the-ground operation in Venezuela to capture then-President Nicolas Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face charges for allegedly supporting cartels that brought narcotics into the U.S.
That effort came after the administration carried out strikes on boats that were allegedly carrying drugs, killing more than 100 people. Those strikes have faced major questions from Democrats.
The president has also called for the U.S. to own Greenland and is ratcheting up tension with European allies as he tries to make good on his promised efforts to own Denmark’s semiautonomous territory. Those tensions have reached a fever pitch around Trump’s one-year mark in office as the president has not ruled out taking Greenland by force.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1 of his term in office. However, after many meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a historic summit on American soil with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that promise has failed to materialize. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage on and Trump has repeatedly said that ending the conflict is more complex than he expected it would be.
Immigration
Trump has followed through on his campaign pledge to aggressively crack down on illegal immigration.
In 2025, the United States experienced negative net migration for the first time in at least 50 years as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to a report by the Brookings Institution, which added that the number is mostly due to a significant drop in entries into the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security claims more than 622,000 people have been deported since the president took office.
Throughout the year, the administration significantly expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations nationwide, with the White House publicly celebrating rising ICE arrests in multiple states, despite their controversial tactics, deadly force, legal pushback and protests.
A Quinnipiac University poll found 57% of voters disapproving of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws, with 40% approving, largely unchanged from Quinnipiac’s previous polling in July. Most Democrats and independents disapprove of how ICE is enforcing laws; most Republicans approve.
The president surged federal law enforcement and even troops into cities such as Los Angeles, New Orleans and currently Minneapolis, Minnesota, to help carry out immigration enforcement there. However, many local officials have spoken out against the enforcement operations.
Federal restructuring (DOGE)
Trump has also made major changes to the federal government, executing on another of his major changes to the size and powers of the federal government. Trump worked alongside billionaire Elon Musk for the first months of his presidency to enact the policy of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
DOGE took a chainsaw to much of the government, including shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and firing or laying off thousands of federal workers.
In May, after months working to reshape the federal workforce and government, Musk said that the DOGE effort, which he promised on the campaign trail would cut $2 trillion in federal spending, saved about $160 million after about five months.
“I think we’ve been effective, not as effective as I’d like, I think we could be more effective, but we made progress,” Musk said in May.
Economic policies
Trump enacted one of his biggest campaign promises during his first year in office: widespread tariffs on goods brought into the U.S. The goal of the tariffs was to onshore manufacturing and slash trade deficits.
On April 2, which Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” the president announced sweeping tariff policies on almost all of America’s trading partners and went far beyond what many experts expected his tariff policy to look like. Just one day later, the stock market tanked in reaction, with stocks losing nearly $3.1 trillion in value.
A few days later, the president paused those sweeping tariffs to give time for the administration to instead cut deals with nations. Trump said that investors had gotten “the yips,” which is why he pulled back. The administration set to work, promising to strike 90 deals in 90 days with America’s trading partners.
They fell short of that goal, but the White House has since reached deals or frameworks with dozens of America’s trading partners. The White House has also made significant carve-outs for some goods that cannot be produced or grown in the U.S. such as coffee and bananas.
The president came into office promising a “manufacturing boom” and that his policies would create “millions and millions of blue-collar jobs and jobs of every type,” but the final jobs report of 2025 showed hiring in the American economy is cooling.
Roughly 50,000 new jobs were added to the workforce in December, slightly below expectations, but the unemployment rate did drop to 4.4%. Roughly two thirds of overall job gains last year were in the health care sector, while manufacturing, tech and government all lost more jobs than they added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The latest CPI report shows inflation up 2.7% from a year ago. Costs continue to rise for energy, medical care and foods such as coffee and ground beef, while wholesale egg prices have dropped to their lowest levels since 2019, according to the USDA.
The typical American household is now spending $184 more a month to purchase the same goods and services as a year ago, and $590 more a month than three years ago, according to Moody’s Analytics.
The president kicked off a tour in December to talk to Americans directly about his administration’s efforts to bring down costs. Trump has continued to insist that “affordability” is a “hoax” that was invented by Democrats.
Trump unveiled a health care plan, which he had promised for nearly a decade in early 2026. The administration unveiled his “great healthcare plan,” but the details are sparse, with top administration officials calling it “broad” and a “framework.”
Trump says he wants to give money directly to Americans so they can buy their own insurance, but it’s unclear how that would work, how much they will get or whether it would cover their health care costs. A recent poll found 52% of voters saying Trump has “hurt” the cost of health care.
The president has also planned to unveil a plan that would lower housing costs during an upcoming trip to Davos, Switzerland. It’s unclear what exactly the plan will entail, but the president has floated “steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes” in an effort to improve housing costs.
Changes to the White House
Trump has also made his mark on the physical space of the White House. From ornamental changes to major tear downs, the president has made his mark on the historic home of the commander in chief.
What started with gilded additions to the Oval Office and the usual redecorating quickly became more long-lasting changes to the White House. The president repaved the historic Rose Garden with white stone and added what he dubbed the “Presidential Walk of Fame” which includes portraits and politically charged plaques about American presidents through history.
One of the biggest moves came in October of 2025, when Trump tore down the White House East Wing to make way for a 90,000 square foot ballroom. The major construction and rapid pace of the tear-down faced major criticism from many Democrats.
The president has made his mark on other D.C. landmarks too. The president’s hand-picked board of the Kennedy Performing Arts Center voted in mid-December to rename the structure the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
The president has followed through of many of his campaign promises. Yet a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll finds that on every issue measured, Trump does not enjoy majority approval. With the midterm elections looming, it remains to be seen whether the president will have the political capital to push through his agenda throughout his historic second term.
