Dems go SCORCHED EARTH on Trump at MUNICH CONFERENCE

What this episode is about

At the Munich conference, prominent Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Governor Gavin Newsom, strongly criticized Donald Trump, portraying him as a leader fostering authoritarianism that threatens U.S. global standing and alliances. They argue for a recommitment to international cooperation and warn that Trump's approach could enable authoritarian regimes, like those of Putin, to dominate the geopolitical landscape.

Key takeaways

• In a world of authoritarianism, AOC and Newsom are trading in caution for conviction—no more playing nice.
• As America's 'shadow presidents,' AOC and Newsom showcase a stark leadership contrast that terrifies autocrats.
• Income inequality breeds chaos; it's the new petri dish for authoritarianism, demanding radical economic reform.
• Climate crisis and democracy are intertwined; neglecting one risks the collapse of both—time for moral clarity.
• Despite the backlash, Newsom pushes back: the truth about corporate America's role in democracy's decay can't be ignored.

Who speaks in this episode?

• AOC (Guest) · 5 min speaking
• Gavin Newsom (Guest) · 4 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Trans-Pacific Partnership
2. 3:00 – 6:00: California, Davos
3. 6:00 – 9:00: California, Donald Trump, China, Midterm Elections
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)

Notable quotes from "Dems go SCORCHED EARTH on Trump at MUNICH CONFERENCE"

• Donald Trump is getting torched at the Munich conference that's currently taking place overseas. Democrats like AOC and Democratic Governor Gavin Newsome are just ripping into Donald.

  about Donald Trump · at 0:00

• Well, first and foremost, I think we need to revisit our commitments to international aid. not just US USA USID but the dozens of global compacts that the current secretary.

  about USAID · at 1:00

• That can be a hard stop against authoritarian consolidation of power, particularly in the installation of regional puppet governments.

  about Trans-Pacific Partnership · at 1:58

• Morality. Folks, play this clip. Made some pretty aggressive comments in Davos. I think I handed out knee pads on stage for you know corporate leaders sold out universities you…

  about Davos · at 4:30

• Meaning an openness to engage in problem solving. Let me give you a specific example. The modern environmental movement in the United States again started in California under…

  about California · at 7:19

• They send technical teams and literally some of their lowcarbon green growth specific to their cap and trade programs came from the example of California and the work we did and Beijing is proof.

  about China · at 8:24

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Primary referenced political figure / target of criticism · 4 mentions · first at 0:00
  Portrayed as leading an 'authoritarian' turn and U.S. withdrawal from global commitments; repeatedly criticized by AOC and Gavin Newsom in clips discussed from Munich.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) — Person · Referenced speaker (clip) / leading critic of Trump in episode narrative · 3 mentions · first at 0:41
  Quoted extensively arguing the U.S. is retreating from the world stage, warning about authoritarianism, inequality, and advocating policies like a wealth tax and stronger antitrust.
  Let's take a look at what AOC had to say at the Munich conference as she talks about how the US is withdrawing from the world stage under the Trump regime and you see this type of authoritarianism.
• Ronald Reagan — Person · Historical reference (used as policy contrast/precedent) · 1 mention · first at 7:28
  Invoked by Newsom to argue that even Reagan-era California took action on smog/air quality, contrasting with claims of Trump-era encouragement of pollution.
  Meaning an openness to engage in problem solving. Let me give you a specific example. The modern environmental movement in the United States again started in California under…

Companies & orgs

• USAID — Company · Case study · 3 mentions
  Mentioned as part of the US's international aid commitments that are being withdrawn under the Trump regime.

Concepts & topics

• Trans-Pacific Partnership — Concept · Key argument · 1 mention · first at 1:52
  Presented as a mechanism to counter authoritarian consolidation of power and maintain global alliances.

Places & events

• California — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at 4:13
  Mentioned as a state leading environmental policies and as a counterpoint to federal actions under Trump.
• China — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 8:20
  Discussed in the context of environmental policy collaboration and as a counterexample to US withdrawal from global commitments.
• Midterm Elections — Event · Key argument · 1 mention · first at 8:53
  Implied as a context for the political dynamics and the pushback against the Trump regime.
  Actually solve problems despite again who's in office in a particular jurisdiction. AOC is next asked about when she runs for president. This was the question. Are you going to impose a wealth tax? Let's play it.
• Davos — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 4:35
  Mentioned as the location where Governor Gavin Newsome made aggressive comments about corporate leaders and climate change.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Donald Trump is getting torched at the Munich conference that's currently taking place overseas. Democrats like AOC and Democratic Governor Gavin Newsome are just ripping into Donald Trump and they are presenting to the world a different paradigm of leadership in the United States. Effectively, you have AOC and Nuome serving as shadow presidents as they push back against the Trump regime and the authoritarianism taking place in the United States that has the rest of the world terrified and frightened by what's going on here in the US as it has us frightened here what's happening in the United States.

0:41 Let's take a look at what AOC had to say at the Munich conference as she talks about how the US is withdrawing from the world stage under the Trump regime and you see this type of authoritarianism uh that is rising uh the type of alliances with Putin here. Let's play this clip.

1:00 Well, you know, first and foremost, I think we need to revisit our commitments to international aid. um not just US USA USID but the the dozens of global compacts that uh the current secretary of state and President Trump have withdrawn from. They are looking to to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age of authoritarianisms of authoritarians that can carve out the world where Donald Trump can command the Western Hemisphere and Latin America as his personal sandbox, where Putin can saber rattle around Europe and and try to bully around our own allies there.

1:46 and for essentially authoritarians to have their own geographic domains. And it actually is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is our global alliances that can be a hard stop against authoritarian consolidation of power, particularly in the installation of regional puppet governments.

2:10 More from AOC right here. Yes, that's absolutely right. You know, I think one of the the connections and relationships that is under discussed particularly in the security space is the fact that I believe we're seeing in economy across economy around the world including in the United States that extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism, right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of not just income inequality but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver the failure to deliver higher higher wages the failure to raid in corporations. You know we were uh the point was just made about antitrust in the United States.

3:03 Antitrust was is such a foundational bedrock value. Not just because the ascent of monopolies create the abuse of power and corporations and market power, but there is a level of market concentration and corporate consolidation where a a massive company can get so big that its consolidated power can rival that of nation states. In democracies, we have elected leaders and in massive corporations that then begin to consume the public sector, gobble up these spending, they start to call the shots. And we're starting to see this with some of the billionaire class throwing their weight around in domestic politics and in global politics as well. So it is of utmost urgent uh priority that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class or else we will fall to a more isolated world governed by authoritarians that also do not deliver to working people.

4:12 Now let me share with you what California Governor Gavin Nuome was saying at the Munich conference. how this is a moral moment for our democracy and we just have to stop this BS. It's a great point framing this as a moral issue beyond politics. It's about basic morality. Folks, play this clip. Made some pretty aggressive comments in Davos. I think I handed out knee pads on stage uh for you know corporate leaders sold out universities you know law firms in my country that are selling out. I you just got to call this stuff out.

4:51 Look the polluted art of the climate crisis is big oil. Period. Full stop. That's what this is all about. I mean that's where the politics that's where the timidity comes from. You talk about the tech stack. You can't get in one of these modern new uh vehicles and never want to go back to the old gas guzzler. I mean, the technology and and we can talk in terms of just energy efficiency and how we bring down costs and we've got to address those cost issues. But the biggest problem is the deceit and the denial that's happening because of these special interests. And so, you just have to have the courage to call it out. And I agree with you. It's infuriating what I hear privately, but it's not expressed publicly. And so we have to call people out. They'll be held to account. They will be judged and ultimately judge themselves.

5:36 And I think this is a moral moment across the board. Simultaneous crisis, not just climate, but democracy, all this stacking of stress. And we all have a relationship to it. Society becomes how we behave. We are our behaviors. And so all of us have a role to play. All of us have agency. We can shape this conversation. But we have we have to stand up with more clarity, conviction, and we have to be more consistent.

6:09 People don't speak up because they're afraid of retaliation. Yeah. Well, you know, buck up. So am I. There's probably not a politician in the United States. I mean, I'm under assault attack by this guy every single day. Here's the president of the United States. He's 80 years old and he's calling me a nickname that an 8-year-old called me. New scum. The president of the United States. You saw the racist tropes he put out. President This is the president of the United States of America. Call this guy out. Stop this committee. Governor Nuome then opines on what the Trump regime did yesterday in eliminating uh the finding that uh climate change that greenhouse gases cause harm to people's health and cause harm that endangerment finding.

7:01 Watch what Newsome says. Play this clip. When I was in BM, we we signed 22US with 22 states in Brazil. And theus are not pieces of paper. their commitments from the state of California to provide technical assistance and to provide resources and a resourceful mindset meaning an openness to engage in problem solving. Let me give you a specific example. The modern environmental movement in the United States again started in California under Ronald Reagan. Not because Ronald Reagan was a fierce champion of clean air and clean water until he had to be.

7:35 Los Angeles was so smoggy that businesses were complaining to the governor saying we can't do business here. So he decided to do something about it with tailpipe. That's exactly why do Donald Trump just said pollute the hell out of the United States. That's called deficit spending. Pollution is an act of theft in the health of a nation and the cleanup costs. 20. You saw all this just in the United States of America alone. 23 weather related events last year that cost the taxpayers over a billion dollar. We are again as dumb as we want to be. Don't tell me this is about saving money.

8:15 Quite the contrary. But it was interesting and this is the point. The folks in China paid some attention. We established relationships with China. They send technical teams and literally some of their lowcarbon green growth specific to their cap and trade programs came from the example of California and the work we did and Beijing is proof positive of a lot of that technical assistance and support. So that's at scale the kind of work we do in terms of this relationship nationally, subnationally, peopleto people to actually solve problems despite again who's in office in a particular jurisdiction. AOC is next asked about when she runs for president. This was the question. Are you going to impose a wealth tax? Let's play it.

9:03 So, when you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire's tax?

9:10 I don't think that um I 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 that it needs to be done expeditiously.

9:23 And interestingly, when I wrote about wealth tax recently, and of course, the big argument against this is always capital flight. The US is actually uniquely placed to do it because you guys tax on the basis of citizenship. So people can't flee, you know, and even if you change your citizenship, there's basically an exit tax because you have to pay a tax on unrealized capital gains. I learned this just recently.

9:43 More from AOC right here. Let's play it. What we are seeing over the last eight years, I think has been a growing recognition that of those past errors that go back that include military interventionism in the Iraq war that include a recognition of NAFTA as a failed policy for many rural and workingclass communities. And now I think we are moving in this direction of increased recognition that we have to have a workingclass centered politics if we are going to succeed and also if we are going to stave off the scourges of authoritarianism which also provides political sirens, political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame uh for rising economic inequality both domestically and globally.

10:36 And finally, here's what AOC had to say, let's play it. I think one of the reasons why not just myself, but many of our colleagues here, in fact, Democrats, many Democrats that are here as well, um, is because we want to tell a larger story that what is happening is indeed very grave and we are in a new era domestically and globally. There have been many leaders who said we will go back. And I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a new time. But that does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order and that we're ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy. I think what we identify is that in a rules-based order, hypocrisy is vulnerability.

11:29 And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the west we look the other way for inconvenient populations um to act out these paradoxes whether it is you know kidnapping a foreign head of state whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland whether it is um looking the other way in a genocide. Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities and they threaten democracies globally. And so 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 on on greater and increased commitment to integrity to our values.

12:28 There you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. Let's hit subscribe and let's get to 6 million subscribers. But very powerful, very powerful there by AOC and Gavin Newsome. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new truth over lies collection at store.midestouch.com. All 100% USA union made.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Dems go SCORCHED EARTH on Trump at MUNICH CONFERENCE"?

AOC (Guest), Gavin Newsom (Guest).

What is "Dems go SCORCHED EARTH on Trump at MUNICH CONFERENCE" about?

At the Munich conference, prominent Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Governor Gavin Newsom, strongly criticized Donald Trump, portraying him as a leader fostering authoritarianism that threatens U.S. global standing and alliances. They argue for a recommitment to international cooperation and warn that Trump's approach could enable authoritarian regimes, like those of Putin, to…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), California, Trans-Pacific Partnership, China, USAID. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Dems go SCORCHED EARTH on Trump at MUNICH CONFERENCE"?

The episode runs 13 min; the transcript is about 1,950 words in 20 timestamped sections.

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