Rubio’s Charm Offensive Changes Nothing*
Published in Der Tagesspiegel
(Germany) on 15 February 2026
by Daniel Friedrich Sturm (link to
original)
Marco Rubio was met with repeated applause and a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Munich Security Conference Chair Wolfgang Ischinger heard a sigh of relief travel around the hall, and spoke of a “message of reassurance.”
The U.S. secretary of state certainly delivered a speech which was couched in a civil and at times conciliatory tone. His rhetorical style was a far cry from Vice President JD Vance’s thuggish outing at last year’s conference. It’s true that Rubio spoke of Europeans as “our cherished allies and our oldest friends.” He frequently employed the words “we” and “together,” and evoked the cultural heritage of Beethoven, Dante and Shakespeare. He recalled the German settlers who had farmed and, of course, brewed beer in the American Midwest. And he avoided the fraught topics of Greenland and freedom of speech. In short, Rubio mounted a charm offensive.
But no one should fall for it. Rubio made it clear that the U.S. is not invested in a rules-based international order, climate protection — referring to a “climate cult” — or the United Nations. He railed against “mass migration” and left the audience in no doubt he considers today’s Europe to be weak and even lacking the determination to assure its own survival.
Rubio is certainly right to characterize the hope for the “end of history” that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the still-prevalent aspiration for a “perfect world” as naïve. However, this also led him to forgo explicitly calling out Russia's war and Vladimir Putin's atrocities in Ukraine. Similarly, Rubio, the former China hawk, studiously avoided mentioning China’s increasingly aggressive behavior. It’s the rhetoric of a man who depends on Donald Trump’s favor and who is reminded every day that real estate developer Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner have deprived him of Putin-schmoozing duties in accordance with Trump’s wishes.
Rubio's speech assuredly did not signal that American foreign policy had shifted one inch away from its Euroskeptic, nearly anti-European, stance. Rubio will fall into line for as long as Trump is calling the shots in the Republican Party. There are no grounds to sit back and draw any relief from this speech. Germany and Europe have made that mistake too many times before in recent years.
*Editor’s note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
The U.S. secretary of state certainly delivered a speech which was couched in a civil and at times conciliatory tone. His rhetorical style was a far cry from Vice President JD Vance’s thuggish outing at last year’s conference. It’s true that Rubio spoke of Europeans as “our cherished allies and our oldest friends.” He frequently employed the words “we” and “together,” and evoked the cultural heritage of Beethoven, Dante and Shakespeare. He recalled the German settlers who had farmed and, of course, brewed beer in the American Midwest. And he avoided the fraught topics of Greenland and freedom of speech. In short, Rubio mounted a charm offensive.
But no one should fall for it. Rubio made it clear that the U.S. is not invested in a rules-based international order, climate protection — referring to a “climate cult” — or the United Nations. He railed against “mass migration” and left the audience in no doubt he considers today’s Europe to be weak and even lacking the determination to assure its own survival.
Rubio is certainly right to characterize the hope for the “end of history” that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the still-prevalent aspiration for a “perfect world” as naïve. However, this also led him to forgo explicitly calling out Russia's war and Vladimir Putin's atrocities in Ukraine. Similarly, Rubio, the former China hawk, studiously avoided mentioning China’s increasingly aggressive behavior. It’s the rhetoric of a man who depends on Donald Trump’s favor and who is reminded every day that real estate developer Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner have deprived him of Putin-schmoozing duties in accordance with Trump’s wishes.
Rubio's speech assuredly did not signal that American foreign policy had shifted one inch away from its Euroskeptic, nearly anti-European, stance. Rubio will fall into line for as long as Trump is calling the shots in the Republican Party. There are no grounds to sit back and draw any relief from this speech. Germany and Europe have made that mistake too many times before in recent years.
*Editor’s note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
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