February’s Munich Security Conference delivered not one, but two major developments.

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First, Secretary of State Marco Rubio successfully rebranded the “America First” foreign policy agenda into a trans-Atlantic vision that made Europeans in attendance stand and applaud. The rhetorical feat restored a degree of diplomatic harmony between the United States and Europe following President Donald Trump’s failed Greenland gambit and aggressive tariff regime. Key European leaders reacted with relief, calling Rubio a “true partner” and a “strong ally” within the Trump administration.

This is significant because, despite what many on the New Right claim, maintaining strong relations with Europe remains vital to American interests. The U.S. and Europe together account for nearly half of global GDP, and our economic relationship supports millions of American jobs. NATO deters Russia and China from threatening American security and undermining our long-term economic dominance. The partnership is a foundation of America’s global strategy.

Rubio’s address didn’t erase tensions overnight. But it was a badly needed, and well-received, step in the right direction.

Remarkably, the speech didn’t sacrifice an ounce of Trump’s foreign policy vision. He framed the notion that we had entered into a borderless, nationless “end of history” following the fall of the Soviet Union as a “dangerous delusion.” He indicted the United Nations’s ineffectiveness at solving major international crises while extolling unilateral American action. He cast deindustrialization as a “decadeslong economic undertaking that stripped our nations of their wealth, of their productive capacity, and of their independence.” He took a shot at the “climate cult” whose energy policies impoverish Americans and Europeans alike, sidelined the “rules-based global order,” and called mass migration “an urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization itself.”

It was perhaps the most complete articulation of Trumpism ever uttered on the world stage.

Yet despite all this, the audience, composed mostly of European diplomats and foreign policy hands, gave Rubio a standing ovation. It was diplomatic alchemy.

How did Rubio pull it off? Through tough love — with equal emphasis on both words. Threaded through every hard truth was a reminder of America and Europe’s shared civilization and heritage, and their common fate.

“We are connected spiritually, and we are connected culturally,” Rubio said. “We want Europe to be strong. We believe that Europe must survive. … Our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours, because we know that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own.”

Rubio’s speech set off the second big development at........

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