AOC Is Watching Her Political Future Go up in Smoke

We previously reported on her humiliating response to a question about whether the United States should commit troops to defend Taiwan if China attacks. AOC froze. “Um… You know, I think that, uh… This is such a, uh, you know, I think that this is a, um…” she began. “This is, of course, a very long-standing policy of the United States, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation. And for that question to even arise.” It was a painful word salad that confirmed that she is in way over her head.

AOC is asked if the US should defend Taiwan in the event China invades. Her answer is a word salad disaster that would even make Kamala cringe: pic.twitter.com/jgfMWiSfmE

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2026

But her rough patch didn’t end there. During a session on wealth taxes, she was asked whether she would impose one as president, apparently still clinging to the fantasy that she’s destined for the Oval Office. She giggled, then fumbled through a response: “I don’t think that, um, 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 it needs to be done expeditiously.”

ICYMI: Schumer Pushes Bill to Make the LGBTQ Pride Flag Equal to the American Flag

Then, Daiana Fernández Molero, an Argentine politician who actually knows a thing or two about wealth taxes, calmly dismantled AOC’s entire argument. Molero explained how this brand of economic snake oil has failed repeatedly in Latin America. 

“You have the recipe that many Latin American countries applied many, many times, that is some relief in the short term, but ends up being a tragedy for the future. It's like a public expenditure, huge public expenditure, price controls, sometimes wealth tax, and you end up with the wealth going away, and you have just the tax, and you don't have wealth anymore. That was something that Peronism did many, many times,” she said. “So all these recipes create a cycle. Then you have this short-term relief, but then it goes with inflation, shortage, then you have more poverty, and the cycle goes and goes.”

AOC in Munich giggles excitedly when asked if she will impose a wealth tax as president. Moments later, her ignorance is exposed by Argentinian politician Daiana Fernández Molero, who has actually seen the destruction caused by a wealth tax. pic.twitter.com/FQn6iEtxTC

— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) February 16, 2026

Naturally, her terrible performance has been getting some coverage, and it makes her look bad. So what did she do? She called in a friendly reporter to do some cleanup for her.

“She gave me a call,” wrote New York Times reporter Kellen Browning, as if proud to be the designated handler. Sure enough, his piece bent over backward to rehabilitate her image, claiming she faced a “potentially frosty reception” among global elites and suggesting that critics just missed “the substance of her arguments.” Right. Because who among us can’t see the deep geopolitical insight in “um… you know… economic research.”

The way her performance was microscopically dissected through the lens of what it meant for a hypothetical White House campaign frustrated AOC.

She said she worried that her message was being lost in all the commotion.https://t.co/KBeT3kaBzj

— Kellen Browning (@Kellen_Browning) February 17, 2026

AOC expected the same adoring media treatment that catapulted her from bartender to congresswoman. Instead, she got her first taste of reality. Without the protection of left-wing media gatekeepers, her lack of depth is impossible to hide.

If this Munich fiasco was supposed to be AOC’s audition for 2028, she may have just seen her political future go up in smoke.